Tribulations
by KungPowKitty
Summary: How to describe this... Basically, I'm going to throw as much bad situations as I can at the Incredibles. Example? Bob can't find a job for starters. And how about the Underminer making a general mess of Vi's date with Tony? And that's just the beginning!
1. Getting Started

**Yello, folksies! 'Sup? Well, here's the first of a series of "The Incredibles" fan-fics I'm planning (not including "Discovery Channel" which is just randomness). If you wanna review, go ahead. If you don't, whatever, your loss. As fair warning, I only have a vague idea as to where I wanna go with this first one, so bear with me while I work out the kinks. Anyways, the story actually starts before the movie's technically ended. This first chapter is gonna be a basic run-down of the three months not covered at the end of the film, then we'll start in right where the movie stopped. Sound like fun? Good. **

After the Parr house exploded so to speak, Robert Parr had to call his NSA agent, Rick Dicker, back to pick the family up and take them to a hotel, since the car was beyond totaled along with the house. Naturally, while he was making this call, Violet and Dash were flipping out over certain things they found in the wreckage of the house (melted CD's, warped game-systems, etc.). Furthermore, Helen Parr was making quite a fuss over Jack-Jack.

Dash and Violet were thoroughly bummed that they still had to go to school the next day. However, they did miss a day during the little Syndrome adventure, and there were only a few weeks left of school anyways, so it all evened out.

Shortly before school was out for the summer, Agent Rick Dicker was able to get a hold of Kari McCain (or whatever her name is) to have her memory erased. After their meeting, the NSA agent then went to the Parr's temporary residence at a local hotel to have Jack-Jack registered as a super (if you want to know about that interesting incident, read the Jack-Jack chapter of The Discovery Channel). Then came Dash's graduation, and summer was there.

Over the summer, a lot of stuff happened. Helen finally chose a house for the family to move into (very indecisive, this one), and they did so- it was a nice two-story house up on a huge hill, a little further from town than the old one. Cost quite a pretty penny. Also, Dash entered into a track tournament, where he ended up winning Second place in the county; the first place runner thoroughly lost in State (we'll come back to this later). Furthermore, Violet totally flip-flopped. She went from so-deep-in-her-shell-you-couldn't-tell-if-there-was-anything-IN-her-shell to life-is-good-here-I-am (but we're going to pretend she wasn't wearing pink at the end of the film. Evil color). So lots of goodness. Unfortunately, the goodness of the summer was balanced with the not-so-goodness of Bob being unable to find a job. We shall explain why that is a problem now.

The family was paid a considerable amount for the Syndrome thing by the government, but further superhero actions were not to be counted on for any kind of salary. Politics, my friends, politics. While superhero sightings were happening all over the country, with a new generation of supers born during the "Dark Ages," (what Bob called the last 15 years), that did not mean superhero actions were legal yet. Congress had temporarily approved superhero help for less-than-average criminals (aka Whakos), but it wasn't going to last long, and supers were still very much restrained from helping with ordinary crimes. Naturally, this didn't give the supers much to work with due to the fact that Super-villains weren't exactly popping up anywhere.

Then, with the summer coming to a close, came the track meet, where Dash won second place and Violet left Tony Rydinger a little tongue-tied. And with the track meet came the Underminer. (And yes, he is Mr. Badguy in this fanfic, not just some random psycho like he is in so many other fics. I think he deserves more than that)

**Voila... Next chapter we actually get rolling… Lookin' forward to it… Air ducts are wonderful inventions…**

**Review…?**


	2. Presenting the Underminer

**Yello, folksies! What is up? Hopefully a ceiling. Okay, lame joke. Although it'd be pretty interesting if someone said, like, a llama. That would be weird. Not the point. So we's is gonna start exactly where the movie left off, minus the credits. Lots of fun. Here we go.**

**P.S. thanks ya muchos for the reviews**

The Incredibles ran through the parked cars to the monologing Underminer and his very big contraption.

"Remember kids," Helen said. "Fight him, nab him, get out!"

"Before the cops come, got it," Violet and Dash recited. The family stopped just at the foot of the digging machine. The Underminer noticed and turned to look at them.

"Ah, the Incredibles. Yes, I was expecting you. What do you think of her?" the Underminer asked the super family, motioning to the digging machine. "I call her 'The Mole.' Pretty impressive, isn't she?"

"I thought the Omnidroid was a little cooler, to be honest," Dash said to no one in particular. "Who names a machine 'The Mole,' anyways? There are like a zillion better names!"

"Thank you for your opinion," Violet said sarcastically.

"Well, Mr. Miner," Mr. Incredible said loudly to the strange man above, "I'm afraid you're going to need to move your vehicle. See, your blocking traffic."

"Oh, am I now?"

"Uh oh."

"Block this!" The Underminer hit a button on his megaphone. Suddenly, tons of giant, robotic rodents came shooting out of the end of "The Mole's" drill at the Incredible family.

"Whoa!" Bob shouted, ducking to the left while Dash ran next to Vi (who put up a forcefield) and Helen (with Jack-Jack) sling-shot herself onto a nearby light post. Mr. Incredible took a second look at the strange robots. Each one of the ten was about the size of a small car. "Showtime."

Meanwhile, the crowd from the track meet had congregated around the entrance to the stadium to watch the fight unfold from a safe distance. Among the crowd was Tony Rydinger and his family, Kari McCain and her mother, a number of Vi and Dash's other classmates, and one of Bob's former clients.

"Whoa, Tony, did you see that!"

"Yeah, Jason, I did!"

"Man those supers are somethin' else!"

"You said it, Sarah!"

"Tony, I think we should go," Tony's father said, putting his hand on Tony's shoulder.

"Go, my little rodent rascals! Kill them! Kill the Incredibles!" the Underminer shouted.

"Here we go again," Helen said.

Immediately, the Robot Rats surrounded the Incredibles.

"This would be a good time for a bright idea, Mr. Incredible."

"Working on it."

"It's useless, Incredibles!" the Underminer said to them, sticking out his tongue.

"Professional, isn't he?" Helen asked.

"Got it!" Dash shouted, running over to Helen's back and taking Jack-Jack out of his backpack-type thing. Holding his baby brother in front of him, Dash smiled at the baby and said, "Where's the fire, Jack-Jack? Where's the fire?"

"A ga!" Jack-Jack squeaked as he turned into Jack-Jack flambé.

"Good boy!" Dash said, placing Jack-Jack down on the pavement. Pointing to one of the rodents, he said, "Fetch!"

"Dash!" Helen scolded. But much to her disbelief, the rodent Jack-Jack was crawling towards started to scamper away.

"You, attack!" the Underminer commanded a different Robot Rat. The metal creature lunged at Dash, Helen, and Jack-Jack. However, Bob intercepted it and threw it by the tail at the Underminer. The Underminer ducked as his beast sailed over. He turned back to Mr. Incredible and shouted into his megaphone, "Watch it!"

"Okay," Bob shouted back, shrugging. And he did watch it. He watched the rat fall down, down, down, CRASH! Bob looked at the license plate of the car the Robot Rat had crashed into and screamed, grabbing at what little hair he had on his head.

"What?" Helen asked him sternly, wrapping herself around the legs of a different rat to trip him up.

"Nothing! Nothing," Bob said over his shoulder as he contemplated how to explain to his wife that they needed another new car.

"Wow! Did you see that, Dad?" Tony said.

"Crash!" Jason added in. The car the rat had landed on exploded. "Wow. And burn."

"Spectacular," a different spectator said.

Dash just discovered a special feature on the rats: laser vision. "Whoop, yi, whoa, yikes, wheeeee!" he exclaimed, dodging the blasts from the rat. "Take this!" he yelled at it as he punched it a hundred times in the same spot in a second. Ker-splat! "Score!"

Violet, at the moment, was taking on three rats at once. It wasn't that hard either. Being invisible can really knock a rat off-balance it seems. Violet slowly circled the rats, occasionally kicking their steel frames. Just like real rodents, these guys were easy to scare. Finally, they lined up side by side. Violet quickly climbed up the left one and hopped on top of the middle rat. She jumped up and promptly put a forcefield around the three rats, turned visible, and landed smoothly on top of her forcefield. She sat down on it, watching the rats, which were, needless to say, confused. One of the rats shot at the forcefield with his laser vision. The laser whatever ricocheted around inside the bubble, tearing the machines apart until they exploded. Boom. Violet undid her forcefield, landed on the smoking wreckage.

"That explosion might've beat the car exploding, Dad," Dash said, pointing to Vi's exploding rat show.

"What!"

"Shh Helen!"

"It was _our_ car!"

"It was an accident! Ow! Honey?"

"Wow. Did you see that?" Kari said to Sarah and her little sister Yolanda.

"Very cool."

"Two tums up."

"It's two _thumbs_, Yolanda. _Thumbs_!"

"Hey Vi!" Bob shouted to his daughter. "You and Dash com'ere, I got an idea!" The kids jogged up to their father and listened in on the 'plan' while Helen kept the remaining three Robot Rats back, with the help of Jack-Jack, who'd melted two rats now.

"On three!" Mr. Incredible said. "One!…"

Violet hopped up and put a forcefield around herself and Dash while she was in mid-air, freezing herself there.

"Two!…"

Dash braced himself against the wall of the bubble while Robert picked the purplish-transparent ball up.

"Three!" Bob hurled the bubble containing his two oldest kids at the Underminer.

"Bob!" Helen shouted at him.

"Oh, sorry, coming!"

"Prepare for impact commander!" Dash yelled as his sister and he careened through the air.

"Very funny. Whoa!" Violet let her forcefield go a little too early, and Dash fell to the Underminer's feet, while Violet herself continued to careen past.

"Umph!" Dash looked up at the large, short man above him, smiling the way he did when he was in trouble with his mother.

Violet meanwhile was thumbing through pages of the book "Superhero: Problem Solving."

"Let's see," she said. "Discovering your flying powers, no, if your enemy falls off a cliff, no, falling in love with another super- What is this crap! Aaaahh!" the teenager put a forcefield around herself at the last second and, like a bouncy ball, she bounced up and down on the top of 'The Mole' until she fell into the machine.

"Hold on, Violet!" Helen shouted, elasti-shooting herself on top of 'The Mole' next to the hole Violet fell into. "Violet?" she asked into the compartment.

"Waaa-aaa-AAAAAHHHH!" the girl screamed shooting out of the hole and next to her mother.

"Vi, what's wrong?"

"Take a look for yourself! Yeck!"

Helen peeked into the compartment below. "WHOA!" she yelled, flying back out. "That's a lot of rats!"

"I'll say!"

"Stay out of there!" the Underminer shouted at the mother and daughter as one of the Robot Rats climbed up atop 'The Mole.'

"Jump!" Helen commanded, and both she and Violet leapt off the digging machine. They landed heavily on a car nearby, Violet shooting through the windshield and Helen deeply denting the roof.

"My car!" Tony's dad exclaimed.

"Wow, that sucks," his son said.

"C'mon, Vi, time to go!" Helen said, stretching inside the vehicle, pulling Violet out, and running (with super long legs) away from the car. She put Violet back on her own two feet once they were about fifty feet away.

The car exploded.

Tony's dad screamed.

"Why do they always do that?" Violet asked, motioning to the fireball.

"We're superheroes. C'mon."

Dash finally stopped running circles around the very dizzy Underminer. The fellow fell on his rump. "Dizzy?" Dash asked him mockingly. Suddenly, the Underminer grabbed Dash around the neck with one of his metal claw-like hands and brought the boy close to his own face. Dash tried to pull away, but he was too strong. The ten year old couldn't help but notice how very sharp the Underminer's front teeth were. The man smelled repulsive.

The Underminer chuckled at him, and Dash could see his yellow eyes for the first time. "It's no coincidence," the Underminer chuckled to himself, "that we met at this track meet." The man, his eyes rolling every which way in his head, struck Dash as being quite out of his mind.

The man stood up, taking Dash with him. "You have not seen the last of me, Incredibles!" With that, he threw Dash towards the earth.

"Gotya!" Mr. Incredible said, catching his son before his head could hit the pavement. The Incredibles looked on helplessly as 'The Mole,' The Underminer, and the Robot Rats returned to the place from which they came via the hole they had dug.

He'd gotten away. This fact sunk into the Incredibles, the spectators, and the press.

Sirens.

"The cops! Run!" Helen exclaimed, grabbing Jack-Jack as they ran to safety.

**Nice'n'long start. Lots of fun. It's kinda late. I should go to bed. School tomorrow. 5 more weeks of it. School sucks. So do stupid people.**

**Review…?**


	3. Taxi cabs

**Yello, folksies! Doin' good? I am! Only a few more weeks of school! Celebrate! … Then there's summer school. Well crap. Eh, whatever. So we started with whamo blamo, didn't we? Drat, I was trying to avoid that. Too late! Next chappy starts in 5...4...3...2...1...**

Well, since the Incredible family was rather lacking of a vehicle at the moment, they had to settle for the next best thing: a taxi cab. I'm quite sure they were all feeling very embarrassed and ridiculous by the time they got out. What's worse is that Mr. Incredible didn't have the cash on him to pay the driver; he had to have his son run up to the house, grab his wallet, and bring it back to him. As if that wasn't enough, they then had to trek the mile and a half from where the cab dropped them off to the house so that the driver wouldn't be able to discover their secret identities. Needless to say, there were some horns honked when cars passed them by.

The night was spent in silence, with exceptions for when someone asked for the peas at the dinner table. It was obvious that Violet and Dash had taken the loss to the Underminer rather hard. After all, their first meeting with a homicidal maniac (aka Syndrome) had ended in fireworks and a whole new wardrobe. Helen and Bob weren't much better off. Although the adults remembered from the Glory Days that it was impossible to win every battle, losing in front of the kids was embarrassing. If it hadn't been for innocent little Jack-Jack, the night would have been far too "normal" for it to be a normal night at the Parr house (let's just say he had a little excursion on the roof).

The next day was Sunday, and the last day of summer for Dash and Vi. Which is why the silent phenomenon of the household stopped the moment the family got up.

"Good luck at the job interview, Honey!" Helen shouted to Bob as he walked out the front door to the cab waiting in the driveway. She, being Elastigirl, was trying to coax crying Jack-Jack into eating his mushed baby-food for breakfast while shoving Dash into the bathroom (which was a floor above her) for a bath and pulling Violet's feet to get the teenager to wake up and get dressed, while waving off her husband.

Bob, dressed up in his best suit, was feeling good about this job interview as he stepped into the cab. Things had sounded promising on the phone. Then he noticed the guy driving his cab. As they approached an intersection, the driver glanced in the rearview mirror at Bob and said in a well-mannered voice, "I was just up here yesterday afternoon."

"W-were you now?"

"Yeah. Had to drop off a family of five down here at the intersection. You wouldn't believe who these guys were dressed up as."

"That so?"

"Go on, guess," the young driver said, turning the yellow cab to the left onto the main road.

"Uh, five you said? Hm, w-were they dressed up as, uh, the Scooby-Do crew?"

"Nah, keep guessing."

"Uh, one of those pop bands? What's the one my niece's always t-talking about… the really bad one…" Bob said, trying to lie convincingly. Not only did he know what the family was dressed up as- he didn't even have a niece.

"No, not a band. Give ya one more guess."

"U-u-uh, h-how 'bout, um, Finding Nemo characters?"

"Nope! It was the Incredibles, man."

"R-really? Were they going to a… costume party?"

"Nah, man. They were the real deal!"

"W-what makes you say that?"

"The boy, man. The speedster. Mr. Incredible didn't have cash on him, so his son had to run to the house and grab his dough. Man that kid can run!"

Bob sat up a little taller. _That's my boy_. "Impressive."

"Yeah. And Mrs. Incredible was havin' one heck-of-a fit, too. Seems somebody messed up at the brawl yesterday with, whas-his-name, the Miner? Apparently, they _used_ to have a car!"

"That's got to be hard on the insurance!" Bob said, knowing full well it was hard on the insurance.

"Yeah. Speakin' a which, you hear what happened yesterday outside the track stadium?" the driver said, turning into a roundabout. Something about his tone of voice told Bob that he'd be talking about the fight whether he said he'd seen it or not, so he just shook his head 'no.'

"Man, it something else. Mayer had a fit when he and the cops got there. Tons of damage, and the guys didn't even catch the creep (although, if you ask me, they did a pretty bang-up job). Man, the politicians are gonna have a field day with this one. Don't trust them politicians. They'll leave ya broke and tell you it's for own good by the end of it, I guarantee! Who knows how the debates are gonna turn out…At least the supers got the media on their side!" the driver said, barely paying attention to the road as he spoke. He was about to continue his own type of monologue, but the taxi cab (which really seemed to drive itself) had parked itself in front of Bob's stop. "Here we are!"

Bob stepped out of the car and handed the young man his pay. "Pleasure talking to you."

"You, too!" the man said, tipping his hat to Bob before he zoomed away. Bob turned back to the skyscraper in front of him, whistling in awe as he bent back to see the top. Suddenly, he had butterflies in his stomach. He wondered whether every person he met today would be talking about the day before.

Gathering his courage, Robert Parr walked confidently past the fountain in front of the building and noted to himself that the cab driver had charged a little much the night before, too.

Back to Helen and kids!

As Vi ate her pancakes for breakfast, one word seemed to loom over her like a dark omen: school. High school. Violet was entering high school this year (if you look at movie, it said middle school or junior high, one of those, on the front of her school. And if she's fourteen, then she had to have been and eighth grader. Shutting up). The teenage girl felt very glad that she'd gained as much confidence as she had over the summer, otherwise she wouldn't know how to survive being a freshman in high school.

Dash on the other hand, was feeling pretty good about school. He was eleven now, his birthday having come and past over the summer, and he was going to one of the older kids in the fifth grade. Best of all, a new teacher. Whoever it was, there was no way they'd know about all his old tricks (or the new ones). Plus as a fifth grader, only the sixth graders could push him around. He was practically grown up and in junior high.

"So," Helen said, knowing to approach her children with caution as far as school went, "do you guys want to go buy your school supplies after breakfast, or later this afternoon?"

"After breakfast."

"Later on."

"Well, now that that subject has been resolved, who're your teachers? Dash?"

"Huh? **(A/N he'd been playing with his syrup**) Oh, teacher! Uh, I haven't looked at my schedule yet."

"You haven't either, have you, Vi?"

"I prefer not to think about school."

"Don't worry! It'll be a great year! Besides, you're going to high school this year!"

"Don't remind me."

"Well, you two finish your breakfast and get dressed; we've got a lot to do today," Helen said to the kids, taking her plate and Jack-Jack's mess over to the sink.

Jack-Jack sneezed suddenly, and he laser-visioned at the wall across from him, where numerous other laser-vision marks were.

Helen looked at the new burn on her wall, cocking an eyebrow in 'go-figure-ness.' "Well, perfect."

**Okay, so this is more of a filler chapter. It'll be more fun next time, I promise.**

**Review…?**


	4. Not much of anything

**Yello, folksies! I've got somethin' for ya's. KPK's funky word for the day: Befuggled (bee-FU-gold. Rhymes with Google). Definition: see _confused_. Isn't it great? But anyways. Last chapter was pretty boring, so I apologize. I'm working on pacing myself with stories, a talent I do not possess. Whatever.**

"Hello, Ma'am. My name's Robert Parr, I'm here for a job interview."

"Let's see, Robert Parr was it? (hum hum hum) Ah, here we go! Yes, you want to go up the elevator to the sixth floor. When you get there, take a left. It's the third door on your right from there. Don't worry, you'll see it."

"Thank you." Bob walked to the elevators, hit the up button, and waited patiently. He looked at his watch. Eleven forty-seven. He had just under half an hour until his scheduled appointment. The super looked around the lobby area while he waited for the elevator. There were bright, golden lights hanging from the ceiling, making the blue marble-like walls look like water. Already he liked the place better than Insuricare. It reminded him of that one mission he'd done in the Glory Days chasing Baron von Ruthless. Stepping into the elevator, he chuckled to himself, reminiscing over the strange events that led to that excursion. "Heh heh. Never again."

The elevator beeped, and Bob stepped out into the hallway. He turned to the left and started counting doors on his right. He stopped in front of the third one. The burly man heaved a relaxing sigh, saying, "Showtime," and stepped into the room. His face dropped.

It was a kind of waiting room- obviously this section of the building was designated specifically for job interviews. The room was packed with other potentials. The ceiling fan squeaked incessantly above. Bob felt his stomach drop. What were his chances against so many other people? As he walked to the secretary's desk, he couldn't help but notice that some of these men looked like they needed this job a lot more than he did. Other men were dressed in much finer suits than his.

"Here for a job interview?" the secretary asked, placing her magazine down.

"Yes, Ma'am, I am."

"Name, please?" the young woman asked, taking out a pen and clipboard.

"Parr. Robert Parr."

"Lessee…Okay, you're interviewing for the middle management job, I see. Most of these guys are in for that one. You can have a seat over there; Mr. Moscowitz will be with you shortly."

"Thank you," Bob said, turning to the side of the room the secretary had designated. He walked over to the chairs, only to find they'd all been taken. Some potentials had taken to sitting on floor. Bob wasn't too keen on that, so he just stood next to the chairs, watching the news on the TV suspended off the ceiling like the others.

Apparently, the city's baseball team had just lost the fifth game in a row. Abruptly, the news switched to footage of the day before outside of the track stadium. It seemed that they were having a 'Super scientific specialist' in as a guest speaker to talk about, not only how supers got their superpowers scientifically, but apparently the guy was a psychologist as well.

The footage seemed to be focusing on the last moments of the battle; a zoom in on Dash being strangled by the Underminer. The more Bob watched the footage and listened to the psychologist in the background, the more guilty he felt about letting Dash get into that situation. Then he noticed that the Underminer was saying something to Dash under his breath, just loud enough for Dash to hear. The psycholo-dude pointed this out as well, noting how the threats made by super villains to younger superheroes could be potentially devastating. And the more Bob watched the repeated footage, the more discomforted Dash seemed.

"Funky stuff," the fancy-suit man in the chair next to Bob said.

"What do you mean?"

"That psychologist, I mean. He's a little odd."

"How so?"

"Well," the man said, turning to look up at Bob, "he's arguing that 'supers' have the same kind of stress and problems as the rest of us to go along with stress directly related to their powers. He's saying they probably have hard, maybe harder, lives like us 'normals.'"

"Yes, that is an original take on 'supers,' compared to what other psychologists have been like in the past," Bob answered politely, turning back to the TV. Fancy-Suit did the same.

"You know what I think. I think supers have super-amplified mindsets. Makes sense, doesn't it?"

"That's a little old-fashioned thinking, if you ask me."

"Old fashioned?" a younger man in a weather-beaten suit said. "That's being very polite."

"Oh?" Fancy-Suit asked.

"Yeah," Ick-Suit answered. "Think about it. They've been in hiding for fifteen years. Don't you think after that much time, even if they did have heightened personalities, or whatever, don't you think they would've become pretty 'normal' after fifteen years of…" Ick-Suit looked as though he didn't know how to put his ideas into words.

"Well, what do you think?" Fancy-Suit asked, turning back up to Bob. It was hard for Bob to believe he used to be fatter than this guy.

Bob leaned his arm against the wall. "Well, I think-" Kashunk! Bob's hand was now holding his weight up against the piping, which was squirting at him. The room was staring at him. He turned to the wide-eyed secretary. "I…I…I'll pay for that…"

Meanwhile…

"Thanks for taking Jack-Jack while I do errands, Honey."

"No problem, girl," Honey said.

"Anyway I can make it up to you?" Helen asked, standing outside of Luscious and Honey's apartment.

"Yeah. Don't tell my husband."

"Deal." Helen kissed Jack-Jack goodbye and hurried down the stairs.

"Say bye-bye, Mommy!" Honey cooed to Jack-Jack, helping him wave. As soon as Helen was out of his view, the baby started bawling. And caught flame. "Say hurry home, Mommy!"

"Guys!" Helen scolded, running over to the car Violet and Dash were seated in. "This is a rental!" she said, taking the squirt bottles full of soda away from the kids (you can imagine what they were doing).

"So?" Violet shrugged as her mother climbed into the front seat. "You got that weird insurance stuff. We could get hit by a eighteen-wheeler in this thing and wouldn't have to pay a dime."

Helen stopped a second, then looked over at her daughter in the passenger seat, a small grin creeping along her face. "Are you sure about that?"

Violet gave her mother a look of slight befugglement. "Ye-aaah…"

_(time skip)_

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

"MOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"

"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Helen whopped as the car 'flew' off the hill at record speeds. Speeds most NASCAR drivers wouldn't even flirt with.

"Mom, you're insane!" Violet screamed, holding onto her seat as tightly as possible as her mother burnt rubber in order to make the left turn."

"You know it!" Helen shouted back.

"Imagine what she was like fifteen years ago!" Dash said as he was slammed into the side of the car.

"Hold on to your hats!"

"Mom, we're not wearing- WHOA!"

SCREECH, reeeeev, VROOOOOM, ERRRRR, screeeeeeech, wobble wobble wobble, "Mom, lil old lady, 12 o' clock!" SKID, Honk honk, screeeee, spin spin spin spin spin, errrrRRRRRRRRR,… wham, veeeerrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRR, BAM!

Dash was thrown into the back of the driver's seat by the sudden stop, and Violet was practically hyperventilating, her hands glued to the dashboard in front of her, while Helen calmly exited the vehicle as though she'd been driving the way she always had. When she realized her kids weren't moving, she opened the driver side door.

"What're waiting for?"

"W-w-wow, Mom!" Dash laughed, un-embedding his face from the back of his mother's seat. "That was amazing!"

Violet did not budge.

"Vi?"

"When I turn fifteen in October, _Dad_ is teaching me how to drive!"

"Oh please," Helen said, "If you think I'm a reckless driver, you two should've seen your grandmother."

**This is sad. This is the fourth chapter, and I haven't gotten twenty four hours into this thing. That's just sad. All well.**

**Review…?**


	5. Would you stop screaming?

**Yello, folksies! Wow, this is the third chapter I've written (not uploaded) today. That's amazing. I'm usually lazy. As fair warning, the first week in the fan-fiction is gonna take some time, then things'll start to speed up. **

Mr. Moscowitz sat at the desk across from Bob, fingering through Bob's record after the interview. He was a tall, skinny man with gray hair and goatee, although he was actually quite young. "Well," he said to Bob. "You certainly have been around. You definitely have a feel for the competition. But honestly, you're a little overqualified."

Bob looked from his file to Mr. Moscowitz and back to the file. "Sir?"

"Listen, Mr. Parr, I really would like to give you the job. I can tell you've got great leadership skills. You've been around the business! You know the ins and outs of some of our leading competitors! But quite frankly, I can't see my superiors supporting the decision to hire you. All your prior employers! I just keep seeing 'body cast' in these files!"

"Mr. Moscowitz, Sir, I really need this job! I've been without one for months! I need a new car! I had to buy a new house because of a fire in the old one! Couldn't you take a chance with me?"

Mr. Moscowitz walked over to the window by his desk, sighing. He looked over at Robert Parr. "sigh Listen, Mr. Parr. I'd like to help, but there's nothing I can really do. If your really desperate, you could try getting a much lower job here, like a mailroom clerk or something, and work your way up. At least you'd get some income, right?"

Bob nodded, standing to go. "Thanks for your time." Leaving the building, Bob couldn't think of how to tell Helen. He hailed a cab and got in.

"Where you headed, mistah?" the driver asked.

"Maple Avenue. The bowling alley."

Helen, Violet, and Dash walked into the school supplies store. Just the smell of the school supplies made Violet queasy. Why couldn't summer just last forever?

"Well, guys, get out your lists. What do we need?"

"Thumbtacks!"

"No, Dash. I mean for school."

"What do you think I'm talking about?"

"sigh Here we go again. Vi, you go grab your stuff while I help your brother stay out of trouble."

"Whatever." Violet looked at her list. "Let's see, notebooks, folders, paper, binders, pencils, and some funky-name calculator for Geometry. Sounds easy enough."

"Hey, Vi!"

"Violet!"

"Hm?" Vi looked up from her list for whoever had been calling her name.

"Over here!"

"Oh, hey Kari. Hey Sarah. What's up?"

"Just getting school stuff. Can you believe it? We're going into high school!" The teenage girls both squealed some on the 'high school.'

"I know. You've been calling me everyday for a month saying that."

"Yeah, well, we are!" Sarah squealed.

"Splendiferous."

"Sooooo, I heard you got a date!" Kari said, accenting the 't' in date.

Blush blush blush, major blush.

"W-what are you talking about!" Violet said, shoving Sarah and Kari into a different lane, out of her mother's earshot. And more importantly, Dash's.

"Oh, I knew it! Who is it?"

"KnowwhatWhatareyoutalkingabout?"

"It's all over your face!"

"Whatitis!"

Sarah was overtaken by giggles. "Can I guess?"

Dash wanted very much to know what Violet and these girls were talking about, since he had heard 'date' in there, but eavesdropping would take some ingenuity with his mother's watchful eye on him.

"Yeah, fine," Violet said, turning her attention back to her list and feeling better now that she was a little further away from her little brother and mother, neither of which officially knew about her date.

"Is it Jason?"

"No."

"Wow, that was fast. What do you hate him?"

"What are you talking about! I just said 'no' and that's it!"

"All right, all right. Hm… what about Mike?"

"Nope," Vi said, grabbing notebooks off the shelf. "I thought you said you were grabbing stuff, too."

"Well technically we're letting our mothers get it."

"Whatever."

"What about that new kid, Steven?"

"No, Sarah."

"Is he an older guy? From the high school?"

"For Pete's sake, Kari-!"

"So it's Pete?"

"Sarah!"

"Vi! Hey, Violet!"

"Hm?" Violet stood up erect. She had definitely heard someone call her name. She turned around. Low and behold, who else was running down the lane to meet up with Vi but Tony Rydinger.

"Hey Violet. What's up?" he asked upon reaching her.

"Not much. Just grabbing some stuff for school."

"That's great. Uh, well I, um, what movie did you want to see on Friday?"

"Mmm, how about that new adventure-type one. The one starring Neon Stuart (**A/N random made-up name**)."

Tony perked up. That's the one he'd been wanting to see. "Oh! Oh that one! Sure! That's a great idea! What time do you think?"

"Maybe you should check the listings first," Violet suggested, smiling a little.

"That…would be a good idea. I hadn't thought of that," Tony said honestly, smiling at his own stupidity. He pointed over his shoulder, "I…will go do that now. And I'll,…uh…"

"Call…" Violet aided.

"Yeah! I'll call you when I find a good time!" Tony exclaimed, blushing slightly.

"Okay."

"Talk to you later, Vi."

"Later," Violet said, watching Tony turn to go. Then she remembered who was standing behind her. Slowly she turned around to face Kari and Sarah.

Both girls' were slack-jawed, gawking after Tony. Ever so slowly, they turned their gaze from Tony, still walking down the lane, to Violet. And in unison…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

"Shut up!"

…

"Thank you."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (inhale air) AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-mfgthrg!"

"Knock it off!" Vi said, taking her hands off the girls' mouths so they could speak again.

"You're going on a date with _Tony Rydinger_?" Sarah squeaked.

"Be quiet!"

Dash was standing as close as he could to the lane Vi was in at this point, listening with all his might. Tony, date, and 'aaa' had been heard so far.

"You've had a crush on him forev-"

"Shut up!"

"It's true!"

"That doesn't mean you have to tell the whole stinking state!"

"I can't believe you actually asked him out. Girl, you are braver than I will ever be."

_Considering I beat up machinery in my spare time_. "Sarah," Vi said, rubbing her forehead, "I _didn't_ ask him out."

"Blind date?" Kari asked. Vi hit her in the side of the head.

"Don't tell me he-" Sarah said, grinning like a banshee.

**(A/N grinning like a banshee? Where'd that come from?)**

Vi glared at Sarah.

"You mean- _he _asked _you _out?"

"Is that so hard to believe?"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Violet placed her hands over her ears. "Shut u-" Vi's face dropped. Someone about the size of an eleven-year-old was standing behind that pencil display. "-p. Seeyalater-Gonnabeadeathinthefamily-Bye!"

**That one was fun. What you thinks so far? WELL I DON'T CARE! BWA HA HAAA! I SHALL NEVER SURRENDER! FOR I AM KUNGPOWKITTY, QUEEN OF THE BREAKDANCING MONKIES! BOW DOWN OR FEEL THE WRATH OF MY FRYING PAN! Whoa. What was in that Pop-tart?**

**Review…?**


	6. Wake up

**Yello, folksies! Listenin' to Good Charlotte on me's computy. Wow, I talk weird. Let's try that in English. I'm listening to Good Charlotte on the computer. Makes more sense, but less fun to say. Oh, before I forget, any of the characters in any of my stories that I didn't make up don't belong to me. Aren't I specific**

"Time to get up!"

"Mmph."

"C'mon. It's breakfast."

"No mphm. Sleep."

"C'mon Helen, I've had enough trouble with the kids!" Bob pleaded with his wife. But Elastigirl was not leaving that bed anytime soon. He sighed and left the room. He went down the stairs where he ate breakfast across from two drowsy, rumpled-hair kids. And a baby who was playing with a little miniature thunderstorm he'd created above his apple-mosh.

Bob couldn't take it anymore. "Lookin' forward to school, kids?"

"Mmm."

"Is that a yes or a no?"

"Mmm."

"Come again?"

"WE SAID 'NO!'" the kids shouted at him. **(A/N c'mon, admit it, you've done that to your parents at one point in time or another)**

Naturally, the force of the combined yell was enough to make Bob fall back in his chair. No sooner had he sat himself back in his chair, when Helen came sprinting/ rolling down the stairs at top speed, landing in a tangled mess on the floor next to the breakfast table.

"IT'S THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL, AND I OVERSLEPT!" she shouted, untangling herself with some effort. Everyone (including Jack-Jack) had stopped eating and were now staring at Helen, who was running back and forth through the house (at about Dash's speed) spurting out her list as she went.

"We gotta get the kids up (zip) and cook breakfast and change Jack-Jack's diaper and (zip) get Bob up and fix (zip) lunches and clean dishes and brush teeth (zip) and walk the dog and take the suits (zip) to the dry-cleaner's and mow the lawn and fix the fence (zip) and replace (stop, point) _that_ light bulb (zip) and put clothes in the washer (zip) and buy groceries and-"

"Mom, we don't have a dog."

(zi-screech)…

"… Are you sure?"

Dash nodded.

"Huh. Hey wait a second!" Helen did a double take. Bob had already gotten the kids up, made lunches, and fixed breakfast. "How did…?"

"How about I take the kids to school, hon?" Bob suggested. "You sound a little stressed."

"Uh, okay," Helen said, taking a seat at the table. She looked at the others as she took a sip of coffee, and said, "So, kids, looking forward to school?"

"Yeah."

"Groovy."

Bob rolled his eyes behind his morning paper. He looked at his watch. "Ten minutes and we're leaving, guys."

"Yeah, all right," Violet said as she and Dash rose to take care of the last-minute preparations for school.

Helen looked over at Bob, sipping his coffee while he read the paper. "How did you know to get up and take care of all that stuff?"

"Happened last year."

"Last year you slept later than I did."

"Well," Bob put down the paper and looked at his wife, "I guess I felt like being nice."

Helen gave him an odd, almost suspicious look.

Bob sighed. "I didn't get the job."

"Oh. Oh, I'm sorry sweetie. There'll be other jobs out there, don't worry. Just give it some time."

"It's been three months, Helen!"

"The right job'll come! We still have plenty of money from the Syndrome thing. Look, if it's that big of a problem, give Rick Dicker a call, I'm sure he can help!"

"No! I've got to do this myself."

"All right. But you should know…"

"What?"

"Your son just put salt in your milk."

Too late, Bob had already taken a large gulp. And he was feeling that salt.

"DAAAAAAAAAAAASH!"

"All right, Vi, this is your stop," Bob said, looking at the high school through the rental-car window. Violet didn't budge.

"Vi?"

"I don't wanna."

"Hey, c'mon! What happened to my confident little girl?"

"She went on vacation," Dash said from the back seat.

"What he said."

"Vi, c'mon. It'll be fine. If you ever get stuck, just smile and nod… Or ask for directions."

"_You _never take directions."

"That's cause I have your mother," Bob said through an embarrassed smile. Vi had to smile. She got out of the car and waved over her shoulder as she climbed the building's front stairs. "That's my girl."

Dash rolled his eyes.

As Bob pulled out of the high school drive, he sighed. "I remember when I could hold her in the palm of my hand…"

"Dad, the road!"

"Oh, sorry!" Bob said, correcting his edging the car into the left lane. He looked at Dash in the rearview mirror, wondering what he'd be like when he was a freshman in high school…

"The road, Dad!"

"Whoa!" Bob yelled, the car coming dangerously close to running into a very big truck.

"Do you want me to drive!" Dash said, seething.

"No, I'm fine."

"Granny, 12'o clock!"

"AAAA! (screech) Sorry Ma'am!" Bob yelled at the petrified woman as he passed by her.

_With Mom's maniac driving and Dad's lack of attention, who knows what Vi's gonna turn out like!_ Dash thought after redirecting his father's attention again. Finally they reached Dash's school, with only minor injuries.

"All right! First day of school! We're ready to learn to get some knowledge!" Bob said energetically to his son. **(A/N couldn't help myself. Little ode to Finding Nemo there)**

"Sure, Dad," Dash said, grabbing his backpack and hopping out of the rental car. He was almost to the elementary school's front door when his father called his name. "What is it, Dad?"

"Please don't get in trouble, Dash!"

The boy just laughed. He walked into the building, pulling out his schedule. Room 56, Mrs. Gutchewsky. _Easy enough to remember. Now where is good ol' Bernie?_ Dash thought mischievously. He walked by a group of sixth graders gathered around something (_probably some dopey new trading cards_) and a few teachers.

"Hey Dash!"

"Hey Todd! What's up?"

"Who's your teacher?"

"Gutchewsky."

"Gutchewsky? Never heard of him."

"Her."

"Must be new. You'll be having fun this year, won't you?"

"You know it. New equals naïve. She is dead."

"I wish I had your class; I could get some great entertainment."

"Who ya got?"

"Peterson."

"That old guy?"

"Hey, boys, what're talking about?"

The boys jumped away from the principal, thoroughly surprised.

"Oh, hey Principal Polt. Where's ol' Berni- I mean, Mr. Binder?"

"He moved to a different district over the summer, Dashiell. See you around, boys."

"Yeah, see ya," Dash said dejectedly, although pleased with the sense he had a part to play with his moving. "Now who'm I gonna torture?" he asked Todd. "What if I _like_ my new teacher?"

"Be brave, man, be brave! You represent troublemakers everywhere, you can't panic now!"

The bell rang.

"I'm panicking."

Helen couldn't remember the last time she'd been able to read the paper. It was a very 'lightening' experience. Or at least the comics were. Then she came across a small series of articles. Three guesses what they were about.

"Super psychology? Young supers put in overly demanding situations? Mrs. Incredible is Elastigirl?" Helen read the last one first. "_After analysis of hair samples and old footage of the famed 'Elastigirl,' scientists have determined that Mrs. Incredible is in fact 'Elastigirl,' fifteen years older._ The rest of the article was about how scientists came to this deduction.

"Heck, all they had to do was ask me," Helen said, taking a sip of coffee. The first article turned out to just be a promo for some bozo's new book. The second article, however, criticized Bob and herself for taking their kids along on their 'super outings,' as the writer dubbed them. Of course, that was putting it politely. Helen was boiling mad by the time she'd finished the article. She threw the paper away from her, exposing the front page to her. She looked at the headline. 'McCormick makes Congress.'

McCormick. Helen knew about McCormick. He was bad news. She'd met him briefly when she was in college and he was touring with his debate team. No one in the country was more against supers than Jim McCormick. What was worse was that he was an excellent speech-giver. When Helen had attended his debate (mandatory for a class she was taking), she herself had almost joined the 'Young Americans Against Supers' organization. Then she'd heard some cop cars in the distance. The memory sent shivers up her spine.

"Bob's gonna have to see this," she said to herself.

**Dun dun dun music! Okay, random. Know what? Star Wars Episode 3 came out. Guess what else. I turned 15. That means driving permit! You'll be looking for my parents in the obituary.**

**Review…?**


	7. Dinner time

**Yello, foksies! Short chapter, lots of fun. (this was originally part of the last chapter, but then it would've been insanely long)**

The first day back to school for the Parr kids had, apparently, been terrible. Dash had had a terrible time with the teacher, who seemed bent on pushing and testing him. During recess, she'd come up to him in the middle of a kickball game and started asking him about multiplication.

"It's not like _she _doesn't know it already!" Dash ranted at the dinner table. "She just wants to torture me! I mean, get this: she handed out these history papers for us to do and said if we didn't finish them, we'd have homework. Well, I finish mine straight away, and she hands me FIVE MORE PAPERS! What is that!"

"I'll take that as a 'no, not a good day,'" Bob said, half an hour after he'd asked his son how school was.

"How about you Vi?" Helen asked.

"Do you really wanna know?"

"Of course I do!"

"It wasn't good."

"Wanna be a little more detailed?"

"Not as detailed as your brother?"

"Bob!"

"Ow! Mom, that was _my _shin!"

"Sorry, Dash. Anyways, Vi, you were saying?"

"I wasn't."

"Please?"

"Fine! All right! I got hit in the head with a backpack!"

"You have _my_ attention!" Dash said energetically.

"Thanks, Twerp."

"Kids," Bob scolded.

"How did you get hit in the head with a backpack, honey?"

"I couldn't find my science class, I was starting up the stairwell and somebody decided to drop their backpack off the second floor."

"Oh, honey, I'm sorry! You okay?"

"I'll live," grumbled Violet. _Didn't hurt half as bad as walking into that door…_

"Hey, Vi," Dash said, in a voice Violet knew was not good. "Aren't ya gonna tell Mom and Dad about Friday?"

"Shut up!"

"What's this, Vi?"

"Nothing!" Vi said through her teeth at Dash.

"You sure about that Vi?"

"Dash, you are dead!"

"I haven't been able to do anything all day! You can hardly blame me!"

"Yes she can, don't yell at the table, and what is going on Friday young lady?" Helen said, her eyebrow cocked dangerously at her daughter. Never keep a secret from super-mom.

"Uh…" Violet desperately wanted to turn invisible right then. Actually, she did for a fraction of a second.

"I'll give ya a hint!" Dash exclaimed.

"Ow!"

"Oops."

"Who kicked me!"

"Sorry, Dad. I was aiming for Dash."

"Ga hehe ma!"

"That's right, Jack-Jack. Violet's in trouble unless she tells her mother what's going on," Helen said.

"Well… ya see… uh…"

"It has to do with a guy!" Dash half sung. This time, Vi's kick was dead-on.

"Yeowch!"

"Violet!"

"Mom, c'mon! Don't make me say at the dinner table!"

"If you'd told on your own, we wouldn't have to hear this at the dinner table, would we?" (the next few lines are pretty much all said at once)

"But Mom!"

"Can I please say!" Dash begged.

"Shut up, Worm!"

"Mom, Vi called me a worm!"

"No shouting at the table!"

"Ga ga!"

"Mom, work with me here!"

"Do I get paid if I say!"

"Enough!" Bob shouted above the ruckus, thus shutting everyone up. Thank God. He turned to Violet. "Let me guess; you have a date?"

Dash's jaw dropped, and Violet blushed so badly, she went fully invisible and stayed that way.

"How did you know!" Dash cried.

Bob just rolled his eyes, smiling to himself as he continued to eat his dinner. "What's his name?"

"Tony," invisible Violet said.

"How old is he?"

"My age."

"Where are you planning to go?"

"The movies."

"Specifically?"

"Mom, can you make him stop drilling me?"

"Specifically?"

"Mom! Erg! That new action film!" Violet de-invisilized herself.

"Okay, sounds good. Can you pass the peas, honey?" Bob said, consequently sending Dash into a coma of shock.

**Ha ha! Gotta love Dash. And watermelons. Short, I know. Forgive me.**

**Review…?**


	8. I dunno

**Boo! Guess what! I'm 15 now! (dances around in a circle) Driver's permit! Put on your helmets and hold onto your seats, ladies and gentlemen! Vroom! Okay, enough of that. I'm sorry this thing is so slow…no, actually, I like it this way. Much better than getting to the climax by the third chapter. Moving on! (Warning: this chapter is short, and it sux)**

Violet, and Helen and Dash for that matter, were very impressed and shocked with Bob's amount of cool at the dinner table when the subject of Violet dating had been brought up. After all, this would be her first date- she'd never been "brave" enough for dating before. Ah, but later that night as he and his wife were preparing for bed, ol' Dad returned to his senses.

Bob sat on the edge of the bed in his pajamas staring at the wall across from him. "A date."

"Yesh, Bob. A dat," Helen repeated back to him as she brushed her teeth.

"It's just not right, Helen. She's fourteen. Geez, when did that happen while we're on the subject? She was just three a little while ago!"

"It happens, Bob," Helen shrugged, coming over to sit next to the man who was at least twice her size. "They grow up."

"I don't like it."

"They can't be babies forever, sweetie."

"They are in comic strips."

"Those aren't real, honey."

"Do you remember when she turned eight?"

"Yes, very well. You've never screamed like that since."

"Well, you would too if your hair was on fire! But that's not the point! I should be spending more time with the kids."

"Honey, she's just going on a date."

"A date…"

Helen just rolled her eyes and got into bed. "Goodnight, Bob."

The next few days went by excruciatingly slow. Violet was still feeling a little awkward in the new school (although no new battles with doors or lockers!). Dash was feeling horribly targeted by his new teacher; he was so confused by her inexplicable fascination with testing him, not only did he not have time to pull pranks at school, but he behaved at home as well. Furthermore, Bob was turned down for another job. Finally, he had to shelve his pride and started looking into jobs such as mailroom clerk, etc.

Helen, meanwhile, watched the papers anxiously. The debates in Congress weren't getting anywhere it seemed, and if they were, they were leaning towards keeping the supers restrictions. Worse, with McCormick in Congress giving speeches, Elastigirl had a bad feeling they might further restrictions. The only thing in the papers that distracted her from McCormick was the articles on her three children. It seemed the public had become increasingly fond of the kids, even protective in a sense. The entire city wanted to see the kids become a great group of supers. With some time, they'd be the biggest celebrities in the state. Ironically, none of the papers could settle on names for the children, hence the restlessness that seemed to sweep through the citizens (it should be added that Helen found this obsession the public had very funny). For example, one writer at the largest paper in town called Vi 'Incredigirl,' Dash 'Incrediboy,' and Jack-Jack 'The Bomb.' Another well-established writer for the same paper called the kids 'Shadow' (Vi), 'The Cheetah' (Dash), and 'The Incredible' (J-J). Also, one of Bob's favorite writers had dubbed the kids 'Vanish,' 'Speedster,' and 'Kid Whamo.' There were more, but Helen just laughed at the others.

**Gah! Super short! That sux! Ah well. I couldn't think of any good supernames for the kids, so I though I'd ask. Any ideas?**

**Review…?**


	9. The calm before the storm if you wanna c...

**I'M STILL WAITING FOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRR… (listening to Reliant K…ain't theys awesome?)**

**Well, hello! Last chapter sucked, I know, but I had to get the idea across, and ran out of ideas. So la de da de da. Hope you guys who're already outta school are enjoying yourselves…as I wilt in my high school…unable to concentrate on finals...knowing summer school is coming…those of you suffering with me, rock on! Okay, getting political, time to get moving.**

It was Friday, but Dash felt like dying. Anything would be better than this. The folded piece of paper in his pocket weighed him down like a sack full of bricks.

A familiar car horn brought Dash back to reality. His mom was in the rental car with Jack-Jack, waiting to take him home.

_Just don't tell her, and it'll all be okay. Just be calm. Just be normal…_ Dash thought as he slowly walked to the car. He hopped into the backseat, next to his baby brother.

Helen started the car and pulled into the street. "So Dash, how was school?"

"Great!" Dash said loudly, jumping in his seat.

"Okaaay," Helen said, a little suspicious of this odd behavior (she's a mother). "What did you do?"

"Nothing much!"

"What did you have for lunch?"

"A-uh…um…a sandwich! Yeah, the sandwich you packed for me!" Immediately, Dash cringed, knowing that hadn't been the correct answer.

"Dash, you bought a school lunch today."

"Heh…right…uh-"

"What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything! I swear she's out of her mind! I haven't done anything bad at all all week! How should I know why she wants to talk to you! (gasp!)" Dash covered his mouth with both hands.

Helen sighed, and she waited until the car was safely halted at a red light before she turned in her seat to look Dash in the eye. "Show me the note."

He hesitated a moment, but Dash grudgingly wrestled the crumpled paper out of his jeans' pocket. He handed it to his mother, who placed the note in her blouse pocket to be read later. Helen sighed again and waited for the light to turn green. It did, and she turned down the street to the high school.

Jack-Jack sneezed. Ka-floomy.

"MOM, HE'S ON FIRE!"

"JUST STAY CALM!"

"THE ROAD, MOM, THE ROAD!"

"WHOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"Whoa! Watch the hair, Jack-Jack, I just finished growing it all back!"

"I NEED A VACATION!"

Needless to say, Violet was a little bewildered when the family rental car pulled in front of the school looking much more worse for ware than it had that morning. She stood with her friends Kari, Sarah, and Michelle, staring as her mother ran into the building with her brother and what appeared to be something that had recently met a flamethrower. Kari, Sarah, and Michelle each turned to look at Violet.

"Was that _your_ mom, Vi?"

"Uh…" Violet searched her mind for an excuse. "I…I…I-eeee don't think so."

"Funny, that fireball seemed really familiar," Kari said, gazing back in the direction of the smoke.

"Gottagobye!" Violet exclaimed, rushing out of sight. Once she was out of earshot of the three girls, she sighed. "Geez, that coulda been close. Umph!"

"Mph!"

Tony had walked right into Violet. Go figure.

"Oh! Uh, hey Vi! Sorry about that, didn't see you."

_You have no idea_. "No, my fault."

"Hey, what're you doing over by the buses, anyway? Don't you usually get picked up?"

"Just talking to some friends."

"Oh… well, s-see you tonight, I guess," Tony said, smiling timidly. He began walking to his bus, waving over his shoulder, and ran into a huge senior football player. He blushed violently and Vi had to stifle her laugh as she returned the wave.

"Ahem."

"Whoa!" Violet spun around. Standing not two feet behind her, Dash, Helen, and Jack-Jack. Ain't it her lucky day.

"Busted!" Dash exclaimed.

"Shut up, Twerp!"

"He was cute."

"Mom!"

"Yuck! Mom, don't talk like that! It's gross enough thinking anybody would wanna date Vi without-"

"Dash, be quiet. _We _still need to talk, remember."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"How long've you two been standing there?"

"Long enough!"

"Dash!"

"Sorry."

"I swear if you guys or Dad do something like this later tonight, I'm gonna-" Violet paused. Gears began to rotate and locks began to click in that head of hers. "OHMYGOSH, IT'S FRIDAY, ISN'T IT!"

"Wow, Vi, breath."

"I'M BREATHING, DON'T I LOOK LIKE I'M BREATHING!"

"Nope."

"WELL I AM!"

"Violet, honey, there's no need to panic."

"I am NOT panicking! You wanna see panicking, I'll show you panicking!"

"Ga ga!"

"Don't you take that tone of voice with me, young man, I am not in the mood! My God, it's Friday and I didn't realize it! What'm I gonna do, what'm I gonna do?" (this is continued. It's probably a good thing Tony's bus left before this whole thing started)

Dash looked casually up at his mother. "She's gonna scream now."

And sure enough… "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

**Well that was fun. The next chapter's gonna be REALLY fun though! I guarantee. And long! We'll be getting some action back in this story! (does a dance for action scenes and explosions) Now, onto business…(a-he-hem)**

**(singing) I REALLY LOVE MY LIPS! I REALLY REALLY LOVE MY LIPS! I -L -O-V-E-M -Y -L-I-P-S! I -L -O-V-E-M -Y LIPS! **

**Review…?**


	10. A serious problem

**DOWN ON THE INSIDE, PRETTY ON THE OUTSIDE! (I LOOOOOOOVE THIS SONG!)**

**Hi. I've only recently discovered Bowling for Soup, which makes me seriously deprived. I must buy all their cds. And some more Pop tarts (all hail the mighty toaster when one's oven/stove is seriously screwed up).**

**Anyways, wazzup? Know what? Life sux, and I love it! (does a dance)(if anyone's curious, the reason for the good mood is school is finally OUT!)**

**P.S. You guys rock! Almost 20 reviews! (does a dance) Wohoo!**

"Daaaaaaash!"

"Not again. What is it, Vi?"

"Com'ere a sec, I need your opinion!"

"Vi, no matter what yur wearin, you look just as ugly as ever!"

"Mom!"

"Dashiell Robert Parr!"

"What!"

"If you don't knowck it off, I promise I _will_ set Jack-Jack to that video game!"

" 'Knowck?' Mom are you feeling okay?"

"Bob!"

"Kids!…Listen to your mother!"

Yes, the Parr household was a'havin fun this night. Violet was having a panic attack every five minutes, Dash was being especially hostile, Bob (who had tried and blew the chances at two job interviews) was being particularly absentminded, Jack-Jack seemed as though he was going to stand up for the first time any second, and Helen was on the end of her leash. Wow, that was a long sentence.

Well, after dinner, things seemed to calm down. And then the doorbell rang. Go figure.

_rewind and p.o.v. change---_

"All right, let's go over this one more time just to make sure we've got everything straight."

"(groan, eyes rolled)"

"What's her name?"

"Violet."

"Violet who?"

"He doesn't need help, Mom."

"Violet who?"

"_Parr_."

"Who are her parents?"

"How should I know!"

"Tsk, tsk, you're losing points."

"You're keeping a score?"

"How old is she?"

"My age!"

"What movie are you going to?"

"Dad, for goodness sake-!"

"(ahem)"

"(eyes rolled) Invisible Fence." (**A/N Wow, I come up with the lamest movie names**)

"And you'll be home when?"

"Ten thirty-ish."

"All right, Tony go ahead. We'll see you at ten."

"_Thirty,_" Tony corrected his father.

"Right. Ten thirty."

Tony left his grilling parents and walked out the front door of his house. Within twenty minutes, he'd walked to the front of his destination. He then spent the remainder of those twenty minutes just standing in front of the door debating whether or not he should ring the bell. Well, eventually he did, and a fellow who appeared to be about eighty answered the door.

"Hi I'm Tony it's a pleasure to meet you sir is Violet home?"

"For starters," the squeaky old-dude said, "It's _Ma'am_!" Okay, so it's a dudette.

"(gulp)"

"And if your looking for a Violet, I only know two. One was my cat…"

_Oh please don't tell me that story_.

"…and the other lives in the next house down."

"Oh! Uh, thanks."

She slammed the door in his face. And he marched to the next house and rang the doorbell the moment his finger was in reach. Well if you'd been standing on some old lady's lawn for five minutes trying to press a little button, you'd probably feel a little ridiculous, wouldn't you?

Tony heard a small (zip) sound, and someone opened the door.

A blonde haired, blue eyed boy of ten or eleven stood there in shorts and an undershirt, a Twinkie half-stuffed in his mouth and the controller to a Gamecube ripped out of the actual Gamecube. Tony was speechless and a little dumbfounded.

"What d'you want?"

"Uh…"

Dash cocked an impatient eyebrow at Tony.

"I'm Tony. Is Violet here?" Tony asked, looking desperately around the inside of the room guarded by the eleven year old.

"Vi?" Dash asked rhetorically. A wicked game just presented itself. "You mean, Violet?"

"Yeah."

Dash feigned a sniffle. "That's right…you were going to be her date."

"Uh…"

"(sniffle) Oh! It's so terrible! She didn't deserve to die! Oh it's so horrible!" Dash struck a dramatic, sorrowful pose in the doorway.

Tony leaned away from the flailing boy, looking at him like he was insane. Probably was.

"She fell so far! It was terrible to watch! And the news won't stop playing the accident! I will never forget her final words! Oh, Violet! You're life was like a song! If only you hadn't been so stupid, you might have seen the train! Or at least the James Bond evil-clone!" Dash stomped his foot, placed a hand on his chest, and started to sing. "It's the CIRCLE OF LIFE! AND IT RULES US ALL! THROUGH DESPAIR AND HOPE! THROUGH FAITH AND LOVE! 'TIL WE FIND OUR PLACE ON THE PATH UNWINDING! IT'S THE CIRRRRCLLLLE-yeah, the Circle of LIIIIIIIIIIIIIFE!"

"(Ahem)"

"Erk," Dash gasped, his eyes becoming very large. Violet was leaning against the side wall inside the front room, glaring at her brother.

"Hi Dash."

Dash turned to Tony, cringing. "How long has she been there?"

"From 'It's so terrible.'"

"That bad, huh?"

"Oh, it gets worse, young man."

Dash squirmed more at his mother's voice. "And how long has she been there?"

"I'd say from the part about the James Bond clone."

Violet walked up next to Dash, stepped around him, and slammed the door in his face. She and Tony started walking to the movie theater.

"Come here, Dash," Helen beckoned. Dash slowly walked up to his mother. "All right, Dash. I'm leaving Jack-Jack with your father. Go get dressed and we'll see what your teacher wants."

"Do we have to?"

"Yes. Now move it," Helen said kindly, watching her son climb the stairs. She walked into the kitchen where Bob sat staring at the classified section desperately.

"Oh, hey honey."

Helen came over and kissed him on the cheek. "Dash and I are gonna go talk with his teacher. I'm going to leave Jack-Jack here with you. Need anything while we're out?"

"Only a miracle."

"I'll see if there're any left at the store."

Dash slowly closed his door and started walking towards the stairs as slowly as possible. Silly boy. Helen reached up over the banister/balcony thing, picked Dash up, and brought the boy down to the ground.

"Rats."

"Get in the car. We'll see you later, hon."

"Yeah, okay. Bye." When Bob heard the front door close, he flipped through the pages until he reached the right article, which read "McCormick challenges NSA agents." Bob, who was leaning back in his chair, turned to look at Jack-Jack, who blissfully played with some wooden blocks. "Things are lookin' bad for us supers, aren't they kid?"

Jack-Jack looked at his father quizzically. Then turned to gooey-goopidy-glop. (**A/N God, this kid is fun to play with!**)

"AAAH!" Bob (and his chair) fell backwards, where he rolled painfully onto his back. From his perspective of everything's-upside-down, he watched as his son gloopidied out of his chair into a royal mess on the floor.

"This is a new one! What do I do!" Bob exclaimed as he tried to roll over and stand up. "Yeow!" He hit his head on the counter. The force of this impact shook the house, and the refrigerator toppled over. Thus, the contents of the fridge splattered the floor. Bob glanced over his shoulder at the mess, but chose to try to crawl over to his son. He stood up and ran over to JAck-Jack. Unfortunately, he stepped on a bit of goop, or maybe some ice cream from the fridge…and went sliding across the linoleum floor.

"WhoaaAAAAAAAAAAAA-" (CRASH! BAM, Whamo, …tinker tinker tinker)

Jack-Jack started crying.

Bob, who'd been launched into a closet of some sort, came out with different cleaning supplies situated on him so he looked like some lame Martha Stewart impersonator. "Coming! Whoop!" He slipped again, and this time went sliding across the room on his rear. Wham! Right into the hutch full of Helen's favorite china. The doors opened, and one by one, plates began to fall out. Bob caught the first plate with his right hand, the next with his left, the next four with his feet (which he stacked on his belly), the one after that in his mouth, and two on his elbows. He sighed with relief. Consequently losing the balance of all the dishes. They all crashed to the ground that they were only about a foot above.

"Helen's gonna kill me. Coming, Jack-Jack!"

Helen pulled the car up in front of Dash's school. His teacher was at the front door waiting for them. Apparently, most teachers weren't still at the school at this time of night. Dash and Helen walked up to the redhead woman, who opened the door for them saying, "Thanks so much for coming Mrs. Parr. I really have so much to say to you about Dash here."

"You do, do you?" Helen asked as Mrs. Gutchewsky, Dash, and she walked down the hall into an office. She looked down at Dash suspiciously, who looked back at her, pleading with his eyes for her to believe him.

"Yes. He's quite a character," Gutchewsky said, as she sat down at the desk and motioned for Helen and Dash to do the same. They did. Dash squirmed anxiously.

"Is he now?"

"Yes. He's one of the best students I've ever had in fact."

"What?"

Ms. Gutchewsky chuckled. "Yes. I had the same reaction after I got wind of his record from last year."

Dash felt confused. Something was not right. Something was very wrong.

Ms. Gutchewsky leaned on the desk, occasionally glancing at Dash as she spoke. "He's full of energy!"

"Yes he is."

"He's always the first to finish an assignment. He's very bright. It only takes him a second to grasp a concept and he's got it down!"

"Really?" Helen looked down at her son, a sort of quizzical smile on her face. Dash, meanwhile, had a bad feeling about this whole situation. What teacher would have a parent come this late at night just to praise their kid?

"Oh yes. I wish I had a whole classroom of Dashes!"

Helen was smiling broader and broader. Her Dash?

"However, I didn't call you down here just to talk about my little wishes."

"So why did you call us down here?" Dash asked, a little too bluntly.

"Well…" Ms. Gutchewsky stood up and looked out the window. "I think Dash should be moved up a grade."

Dash swallowed his bubblegum.

Violet (**who DID buy the popcorn! She let Tony buy the soda pop though. Notice I used the word 'let'**) and Tony were about twenty minutes into the movie, and things were starting to get good. The main character's house just exploded, and he was flipping out at his cell phone. Very funny.

"This is great!" Violet whispered to Tony between giggles.

"Yeah!" he whispered back, trying to keep in his laughter contained.

As the theater quieted again, Violet thought about how great this date was going. Then…she noticed this weird…background sound in the movie. Like a candy wrapper being crumpled…just a few hundred octaves lower. It was real quiet…but… Some of the other theater attendants seemed to notice the sound as well. But Tony didn't seem to notice. Then again…

Violet looked around, searching for the source of the sound which didn't seem to be coming from the movie anymore. It was getting louder. Tony looked at her.

"What's wrong?"

"Hear that?"

Tony listened for a second. The sound paused a second, then started up again, louder. "Yeah. What is that?"

Everyone in the theater could hear it now. Some people were standing. Others were looking for management. Violet and Tony stood as well.

Tony looked around the room questioningly, as though the room itself… "What the heck is going on?"

But Violet was thinking. That sound, which was near thundering now, seemed so familiar…like a blender or a drill…_Drill_… "Drill…Drill! Tony, run!"

Too late. A giant drill-contraption shot through the floor of the theater. Violet screamed, watching the people who'd been in the drill-bit's way being flung away. 'The Mole' and The Underminer.

"Hello friends!" the Underminer said into his megaphone, smiling maliciously. His eyes seemed to glow under his helmet. "Let's see if the Incredibles can stop me this time! Go, Robot Rats, go!"

Tony gasped as the rodents flew out of the end of the drill bit. The doors were being flooded by people trying to escape the swirling drill and the malevolent metal rats. Violet looked around desperately. _WHAT DO I DO!_

The window. The thing the projector plays the movie through. "Tony, c'mon!" Violet yelled over the screams and machinery. She grabbed his hand and pulled him up the stairs to the back of the theater. A rat the size of a car landed on the stairs in front of them, baring its teeth. Violet shoved Tony down an aisle. "This way!"

The pair jumped over the remaining rows to the back row. The rat turned around on the stairs and started up ever so slowly. Violet stood on the highest part of the seats and jumped at the window. Her hands just grabbed the edge of the sill, and she pulled herself up. The window had glass between her and the projector room. Go figure.

"Vi, hurry!" Tony yelled, his eyes fixed on the approaching metal rat.

She threw her weight into the glass. Ker-smash! She went flipping into the projector room and somersaulted on the floor. "That was easy." She went back to the window. "C'mon! Oh, shoot!" she yelled, realizing the rat had reached the last row and was lumbering towards Tony very quickly.

Tony jumped, and Vi helped pull him into the projector room. They both catapulted into the opposite wall. But apparently, apparently rats are pretty good jumpers. The rodent's frightening jaws stuck through the window and snapped at them.

"That way!" Tony shouted, pointing at the door. The projector operator had already split.

Tony reached the door first. He threw his weight into the door as he turned the doorknob. The door just shook on its frame. "It's locked!"

Suddenly, they heard a voice from the other side of the thick metal door. The Underminer. "Ready, or not, here I come!"

Tony flung himself away from the door, not wanting to wait and see what this whako was going to do to the door. "There's no way out!" he yelled. Violet too was beginning to panic. If her entire family hadn't been able to take this guy down, how could she? Especially with Tony watching?

"Window!" she cried, pointing to a circular window to the outside. She then ran over to the projector.

Tony stared at the window. "We're like three stories up!"

Violet walked up to the window and threw the projector through it.

"We're still three stories up!"

Violet scrambled back to the projector area as the banging on the door got louder.

"We can't jump!" Tony insisted, watching as Violet broke a leg off the wooden table that (had) held up the projector and used it to knock the extra glass out of the window frame.

"Oh yes, we can!" Violet yelled, seizing Tony's arm and pulling him through the window after her. Time seemed to slow down as the pair fell to the ground. "Roll up!" Violet commanded. Tony obeyed, and they both landed painfully on the pavement.

"How'd you know what to do?"

"Gymnastics, let's go!"

'The Mole' and The Underminer blasted through the front of the theater, along with twenty or so robot rodents.

"This way!" Tony suggested, and they both started to run. However, what they didn't see was the mechanical arms coming out of the 'Mole' tearing off different pieces of the theater building and throwing them in random directions. Violet and Tony looked over their shoulders as they ran, and gasped, watching in slow motion as one of these huge pieces of concrete and rubble came hurtling right at them.

Fft.

**CRACK CRUMBLE CRASH!**

Violet shrieked in pain as the rubble cracked over her forcefield. She didn't move after the 'rock' cracked over it, or even after the dust had cleared. She breathed heavily for a second before she lowered her hands, and therefore her forcefield. Slowly, she looked over her shoulder.

Tony, who lay on the pavement, stared. He'd seen the whole thing.

Only two words came to Violet's mind…

And neither one complies with the PG rating of this fan-fiction.

**There's chappy 10! Hope you enjoy!**

**Review…?**


	11. Problem Solving

**(singing) If I could have one wish tonight, I'd wish upon a satellite!**

**(ahem) Okay, before I say anything else, I should apologize for taking so long to get this chapter up. I'm gonna be perfectly honest: after the last chapter, I had no idea how to get to where the story needed to go. Plus I don't think I'll ever be able to top that amount of insanity. Ah well.**

The particularly rattled Robert Parr, carrying a bucket in which gooey Jack-Jack napped, stared at the news anchor on the television. She'd just received a bulletin and apparently it had something to do with the Underminer.

"Oh dear!" the news anchor with bleached hair said. "It seems that the Underminer…

(a picture of the Underminer from the track meet popped up at the side of the screen)

…has returned!"

Bob lunged for the phone and dialed as quickly as he could while making a mental note of where the Underminer had sprung up.

"Yeah?" a man answered from the other side of the line.

"Dean! It's me, Mr. Incredible!"

"Oh, well hello. It's about time you called."

"I know I know! Listen, you finished it?"

"She's up and kickin', Mr. Inc."

"Good! I need it now! Come pick up my son and me! And don't call me Mr. Inc."

"Aye aye Cap'n," Dean said and hung up.

Bob ran for his bedroom closet, phone still in hand, where he grabbed his and Jack-Jack's supersuits. As he began to race back downstairs, he dialed again.

Dash was, well, in a state of shock. Move up? Grade? Sixth grader?

"I believe he'd do very well in moving up a grade," Ms. Gutchewsky was saying to his mother. "Especially in this school district."

"Why is that?" Helen asked.

"Here, sixth grade is included in the elementary school. All of the other schools I've taught at incorporated sixth grade into the junior high school. This way, Dash doesn't have to move up to an entirely different school."

Dash wasn't listening. Sixth grade. The horror…

A phone was ringing.

"Uh oh. Sorry about this," Helen said, grabbing her cell phone from her purse - the cell phone meant only for 'super' emergencies.

"Hello?…What?…Okay okay, we'll meet you there!" Helen said, then hung up. "I'm sorry, Ms. Gutchewsky, but there seems to be a family emergency."

"It's fine. We can speak another time. It was nice to meet you Mrs. Parr," Ms. Gutchewsky said, shaking Helen's hand as she and her son left the building.

They both hopped into the car and Helen hit the gas. "Dash…"

"Yeah Mom?"

"You wearing your supersuit?" Helen asked.

Dash chuckled. She looked into the rearview mirror. He most certainly was. She smiled to herself as she ran a red light. Dash move up a grade? It was almost too good to be true.

**(A/N Do we smell the irony?)**

"Finally, you're here!" Mr. Incredible exclaimed, bucket of Jack-Jack in hand.

"Hey, it's a long drive," Dean shrugged. "What d'you think of her?" he asked, motioning to the thing Bob had commissioned and he (Dean) had brought with him.

"It's great."

Dean looked around. Mr. Inc had mentioned a son on the phone. That's when he heard a giggle from the bucket of goo Mr. Inc was carrying as he counted out bills to pay Dean with. "Uh… _that's _your son?"

"I'll be back later thanks again bye!" Mr. Incredible said, taking the car keys out of Dean's hand, jumping into the car Dean had driven there in, and zooming off before Dean could say a word.

"Never changes … How'm I supposed to get home now?"

Tony stood up shakily. "V-Vi? Y-you're…"

"No time for chit-chat, move!" Violet shouted, shoving Tony down the sidewalk as more boulders came sailing in their direction.

"Whoa Violet wait!" WHAM!

Violet looked around Tony. She'd pushed him into a streetlamp.

"Sorry."

"Look at all the pretty colors…"

Violet saw a phone booth. "In in in in in!" she yelled as adrenaline pumped through her, shoving Tony in the booth before her.

"Violet!" Tony shouted, pointing to another mound of theater being thrown straight at the telephone booth.

"Out out out out out!" Violet yelled, shoving Tony back onto the street just as the rock pulverized the glass box.

"Hey hold it a second Vi!"

"D'you have a cell phone?"

"What?"

"DO YOU HAVE A CELL PHONE?"

"Yeah, here…"

"Thanks," Vi said as she hurriedly dialed.

Ring… ring… ring… ring…

"Vi?"

"Somebody pick up the phone!"

Ring…

"Uh Vi?"

"Just a second, Tony!"

Someone picked up. "Hello…"

"Dad, it's me!"

When Tony heard Violet say 'Dad,' he suddenly came to an obvious realization. "You're dad's Mr. Incredible!"

"Hush!" Violet hissed, covering Tony's mouth with her hand. What a terrible date this had become. "Dad, I got a problem!"

"…This is the Parr residence. We can't come to the phone right now, but if you leave your name and number-"

Violet mumbled angrily and hung up. She couldn't take much more of this. Tony could only watch in shock as Violet put on her mask and revealed her supersuit underneath her normal clothes.

"Vi?"

"Not now, c'mon!" Violet said. She threw her purse/bag containing her normal clothes into an alley way. "Don't let me forget those!" she ordered Tony.

"Uh, Vi?"

"Yeah Tony?"

"Exactly… I mean… when were you… you're…?"

Brain fart.

Violet looked blankly at Tony as he tried to figure out what to ask.

"Uh…"

"Violet!"

"What- Waaa!" Fft.

WHAM! Another boulder fell at them.

Tony didn't dare open his eyes. His face cringing, he asked, "Did we die?"

Violet was also cringing. "Dunno. Do you want to open your eyes or should I?"

"I will." Tony opened one eye and sighed with relief. Violet opened her eyes too and released her forcefield. "C'mon," she said to Tony, motioning for him to follow her as she jogged down the sidewalk.

"Where're you going?"

"If I can't call my dad, we'll just have to go _to _him." She turned to continue jogging down the sidewalk when-

Zoom zoom!

Violet's face dropped in annoyance as the family rental car and another car that Mr. Incredible was driving zoomed past her. **(A/N just like the car commercial!)**

Dash and his mother pulled sharply into the theater parking lot where the Underminer, the 'Mole,' and his Robot Rats were waiting. They jumped out of the car. Mr. Incredible, who'd been driving the car behind them, hopped out of his car too, the bucket in hand.

"Honey?" Elastigirl asked, staring at the bucket. "Why is Jack-Jack in a bucket?"

Mr. Incredible looked down at the bucket. Sure enough, Jack-Jack had morphed back to his usual self, suit and all. "It's a long story."

"Whoa, Dad! Where'd you get the car?" Dash exclaimed, sprinting to the car Mr. Incredible had brought. The car itself had been Dean's commission. And it was a supercar. It looked like something close to the Batmobile, except built to seat eight. Also, there was a red 'i' on the hood of the car.

Elastigirl also noticed the car. "Oh no. Don't tell me you-"

"Look out!"

A giant Robot Rat landed on the rental. Dash looked around for who'd warned them, but only saw a girl and some guy on the sidewalk across the street.

Elastigirl rubbed her forehead. "We're going to have to pay for another rental, aren't we?"

Dash nodded.

"INCREDIBLES!" the Underminer shouted from his 'Mole' of a soapbox. "Tonight you shall fall to my undying fury!"

"Does this guy ever shut up?"

"Already I have taken one of your lot! The rest of you shall fall next!" the Underminer continued.

"What is he talking about?" Elastigirl asked. "'Taken out one of our lot?' We're all here!" Then it dawned on her. Violet wasn't there. She was out on a date with that Tony boy. At a movie theater.

Dash and Mr. Incredible realized this as well.

Dash looked between his parents. "He… h-he doesn't mean that…"

"I most certainly do! I've torn this place apart! The young 'super' is no more! Now my Robot Rodents, finish them!"

Several of the group of machines approached the family of supers. None of the Incredibles knew what to do; their minds raced with thoughts of Violet. The Underminer laughed harshly as the robots got steadily closer to their targets. Mr. Incredible was filled with guilt. He'd lost Vi once before at Nomanisan. Even after all that, had he still failed to protect his family?

"Finally!" the Underminer shouted. "Finally I shall have my revenge for-"

"HEY MOM!"

Mr. Incredible, Jack-Jack, Dash, and Elastigirl spun around.

The Underminer screamed. "WHAAAAAAAAAT!"

Sure enough, there was Vi, a safe distance from the action, yelling her face off so she could be heard over the roaring engine of the 'Mole.' Needless to say, the Underminer was having a bit of a temper tantrum and Elastigirl was jumping up and down with joy.

"You guys take care of the mice, I'll go see Vi!" Elastigirl ordered the boys, sprinting to her daughter.

"Sure, fine, leave it to us," Dash said sarcastically as he gawked at the machines that were each at least ten times his size.

Violet and Tony waited as Elastigirl ran towards them. Not slowing down. Speeding up… uh…

Elastigirl barreled straight passed Tony and into Violet, hugging her like nobody's business.

"You're alive you're alive you're alive you're alive you're alive you're alive you're alive you're alive you're alive you're alive you're alive you're alive you're alive you're alive you're alive you're alive!"

"Yes Mom. I'm alive."

Elastigirl seemed to be having trouble containing her emotions. Or listening for that matter. "Thank God you're alive!"

"We covered that, Mom."

"You had me worried sick!"

"Don't get sick on me."

"You are never leaving the house again!"

"Mom!"

"Don't take that tone of voice with me young lady I did not carry you for nine months to be treated like that Who are you?" Elastigirl said pointing at Tony for the last part.

Tony smiled awkwardly and sort of half-waved.

"Violet," Elastigirl said in a questioning/scolding voice, letting her daughter out of her chokehold. The love fest was over.

"Mom," Violet said, smiling uneasily. "This is Tony."

Helen drew in her breath and closed her eyes, bracing herself for what she knew very well was going to come.

"Mom, we have a small problem."

"HONEY, WE COULD USE A HAND!" Mr. Incredible shouted from the fight scene. At the moment, he was holding the jaws of one of the rats open so as to keep Dash and Jack-Jack from being eaten.

"JUST A MINUTE!"

"YOU DON'T HAVE A MINUTE!" shouted the angry Underminer.

"SHUT UP!" Tony yelled.

Violet and Elastigirl looked at Tony funny.

"What?"

Elastigirl shook it off. "Vi, you and Tony stay right here. If you move, you are grounded for a month." With that she sprinted back to the action.

"Supers get grounded too?" Tony asked.

"More than you know."

"What'd I miss?" Elastigirl asked as she reached the boys.

"Only a whole lot of fun!" Dash shouted as he ran by, several rats chasing after him. He continued running, turning onto the street, leading the rats away from the theater. An eighteen-wheeler loomed ahead of him in the distance.

"Score."

Dash looked over his shoulder at the trailing rats. The semi was getting closer. A block away… half a block… 100 feet… Dash ducked at the last second as the truck passed over him, hugging the ground as he heard metal crash and scrape. Finally, when the truck had stopped moving all together, he crawled out and looked at the front of it.

He grinned. "Just like bugs on a windshield!" Zoom, he was gone, back to the theater.

Well, it was more like a parking lot now.

However when Dash reached the theater/trashed lot, he was horrified to find the Underminer gone, along with his family. In their place was a bunch of cops and crime scene investigators. And the mayor.

Dash skidded on the asphalt of the street and ran into some nearby trees. "Oh this is bad." All of a sudden, the white circle of the 'i' on his outfit started to blink and beep. Loudly.

"Who's over there?" a cop (who had been frozen stiff in a jewelry store once, if you get my drift) yelled.

Dash began to panic. "Shut up!" he hissed at the 'i' as the cop started to walk towards the trees. He put a hand over the dot, but it just got louder.

"Come out with your hands up!" the cop stuttered as he entered the woods.

Dash wanted to run so bad it hurt, but he just couldn't. Cops had guns. The end. He began to back away from the approaching shadow of the man, and backed into a tree. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as his worst video-game-induced nightmares were about to come true.

…

Dash opened an eye. Then both, because he was shocked at what he saw. It was a cop-sicle. Not a Popsicle, a cop-sicle.

"Over here!"

Dash looked around. Frozone was hanging out of the passenger seat of the funky car Dad had driven up in. Dash leaped inside the car and they were gone.

**Trust me, this version is better than the old one. Still kinda sucked, but I like it anyways. **

**Review…?**


	12. Only getting started

**Listening to the Incredibles soundtrack right now. I am so obsessed. It's not even funny. But anyways! On to the story!**

"So I'm not going to remember any of this?"

"No…"

Violet and Tony were sitting together in some rather uncomfortable chairs. They were in a painfully dull hallway lit by lights that were too bright. After picking up Dash from the 'crime scene,' the Incredibles, Frozone, and Tony had gone straight to the closest NSA department. There, the supers had changed back into their everyday clothing, and Violet had been left to explain things to Tony while Bob and Helen got Rick. Frozone waited with Dash and Jack-Jack. It was going to be a long night.

Tony was staring at the door across from the chairs in which he and Vi sat. His foot was tapping the floor uncontrollably. Obviously, he was a little rattled by the whole situation and a little nervous about what was to come.

"Kari's done this before?"

"Yeah…"

"Was she…you know…" Tony pointed to his head and twirled his finger in a gesture suggesting insanity. "…before or after that?"

"Before," Vi said, laughing a little.

"W-what exactly do they do?"

"I don't really know."

"My parents are gonna kill me."

"Not as bad as mine…"

"Hm," Tony agreed, nodding his head. His foot continued to tap the ground. The door loomed over them, like a dark force. Violet kept beating herself up inside her head. _Stupid stupid stupid!_

"How (ahem)," Tony began, starting a couple octaves high, "how're you gonna fix that tear in your suit?"

Violet thought about the tear from one of the rats. Her arm was now bandaged tightly. "I don't know. I think my mom made them, so I guess she'll just fix it."

"Your mom?"

"I guess."

"Huh…"

The sound of footsteps echoed through the hallway. Both teenagers looked in the direction of the sound as the owner of the feet turned the corner into the hall. A short woman walked through the hall, looking at a clipboard. Neither teen said a word. Again the silence brought the gray, steel door seem alive and more threatening than an Omnidroid.

More footsteps; several people. Two Violet recognized as the footfalls of her parents. Before they could turn the corner into the hallway, Violet turned to Tony and looked guiltily down at her shoes.

"Sorry about all this."

Tony shrugged. "No big deal."

Sure enough, Agent Dicker, Helen, and Bob were walking down the hall towards them, Rick in the lead. The three adults stopped in front of Tony and Vi. Rick looked down sleepily at Tony.

"Tony, right?"

Tony nodded. His foot had finally stopped.

"I'm Agent Rick Dicker. Please follow me." Agent Dicker opened the gray door. Inside was a dark room in which Tony could just make out a table, some chairs, and a projector thing on the ceiling. Rick held the door open as Tony walked inside and shut it behind the boy. Above the door, a red-lit sign turned on: Do no disturb.

"Hey kiddo," Bob said to his daughter.

Violet stood up and looked at the door. It all seemed so unfair.

"His parents will pick him up, Vi," Helen said.

"His parents?"

"Don't worry. They'll get the same story as Tony."

"What's that?"

"The two of you went on a date, the theater was attacked, you both managed to get out, and the Incredibles saved the day. Then they brought you both here so you'd be out of danger."

"… Okay."

The ride home was silent. It wasn't until they got home that things got back to normal. Well, normal for them anyways.

"Uh, Dad?" Dash asked, looking out the window at the front of their house. "Who's that guy sleeping on our front porch?"

"Uh oh."

Bob parked the car in the driveway and they all piled out. Dash and Vi looked down at the man in blatant shock, while Helen, who held the sleeping Jack-Jack, was trying to remember where she'd seen that face.

Bob bent down next to Dean. "Dean," he said softly. "Dean wake up." He gave him a gentle shake. Mind you gentle for Mr. Incredible is not-so-gentle for the rest of the human race.

"Wha- What?" Dean yelped, sitting up. He wiped his face with his hand. "Mm." He looked up at who had woken him. "Hey, Mr. Inc is back."

"Heya buddy."

"Carter?" Helen asked the young man.

"And Elastigirl! Well what d'you know."

"This isn't Carter, hon," Bob said, helping Dean stand up. "This is his son, Dean."

"Dean? Little Dean?"

"That's me, Ma'am."

"It's been ages! The last time I saw you, you were-"

"Twelve?"

Helen did the math in her head. "Yeah."

"Fifteen years has a tendency to change that."

Dash and Violet looked 'little Dean' over. If it had been fifteen years since he was twelve, that mad him twenty-seven. That seemed right. He wore blue jeans- not tight and not baggy, a black t-shirt from some rock concert, and a jean jacket. He had a sleepy, laid-back look about him, aided by his poorly combed black hair.

"So, uh, who are you?" Dash asked, interrupting the conversation of the adults.

"Well lookit here. More customers. Less sleep."

"You are just like your father."

Bob looked down at Dash. "This is Dean."

"We figured that much out."

"Well, he took over his father's business, which was… uh… he was an 'engineer of vehicles and… mechanisms meant for abnormally, uh, super-"

"I make cars," Dean interrupted. "Among other things, for supers. Weird ones." Dean sat on his haunches next to Dash. "Like your mother. Once my daddy got a call from her asking for a jet that could, and I quote, 'withstand the explosion of the sun.'" Dean smiled from Dash to Helen then stood up. "Now, since his acclaimed majesty Mr. Inc is back, perhaps he could give me my cash for his new car so I could call a cab an' get home."

"Oh, sorry," Bob said, counting out the bills and handing them to Dean. Helen made it a point not to look.

"Well," Dean said, swinging around on his right leg so he could face the entire family as he walked backwards off the porch and across the lawn. "It was a pleasure meeting y'all. I'll be reading' about ya in the morning paper tomorrow, no doubt. So, I-"

ZOOM!

As Dean had stepped blindly into the street, a large pick-up truck nearly ran him over. Thus leaving Dean in a frozen state of terror. "I'll just be leaving now," he said in a high-pitched voice. With that, he slowly turned around and walked down the street.

"Well," Helen was saying the next morning at breakfast, "at least he isn't as bad as E." She elasti-placed the plate of pancakes in front of her sleepy while she handed Bob the morning paper and got out Jack-Jack's baby food.

"Who's E?" Violet asked as she leaned away from her ravening little brother. Bob looked up at Helen from his paper.

"They didn't meet Edna when you picked up their suits?"

"No. Remember, I had no idea what she had for me when I got there."

"Edna Mode is the person who made your suits, Vi," Bob said, reaching for a fire extinguisher. Jack-Jack sneezed and was suddenly aflame. Without so much as a second glance, Mr. Incredible extinguished his son and placed the extinguisher back under the table.

"I thought Mom made our suits," Dash said between bites.

"No, I didn't. And Vi, don't let me forget to take your suit to get fixed."

"Okay," Vi said, turning dejectedly to her breakfast.

"Uh oh."

"What is it, honey?" Helen asked as she finally sat down to feed Jack-Jack.

"You don't want to see the paper."

Violet and Dash both had the sudden urge to leave.

Helen had one of her strange faces on, a spoon aloft just out of the reach of Jack-Jack's mouth. Her eyes were closed, bracing her for what was going to come. "What is it?"

"Well, the good news is that the writers seemed to have finally settled on names for the kids."

"Really? What's my name?" Dash asked. He'd been eager to get a name for ages. Even Vi was curious about her name. At a young age, whenever Helen wasn't around usually, Bob had told his kids stories about the glory days. Neither child wanted to have some horrible name like some of the supers they'd been told about.

"Well, kiddo, your name… lessee now. Rapid Fire."

"Rapid Fire?" Dash asked happily. "Not bad!"

"How bout me and Jack-Jack?" Vi asked nervously.

"Jack-Jack… is the Flare, and you are… Shadow."

"Pretty good!" Dash said happily.

"So what's the bad news?" Helen asked through her faces as she fed Jack-Jack.

Bob hesitated a second, then slid the paper across the table to his wife so that the articles faced her.

"Oh no."

McCormick. While names had remained anonymous in accordance to press restrictions pertaining to memory-erasion-involved cases, it was still there. McCormick had gotten word of how 'a young, upstanding American boy had been deliberately put in harm's way by a young super during a get together at a movie theater.'

Helen quickly flipped the paper over when Violet and Dash began to peek at the print. Desperate to change the subject, she turned to Dash. "So, sweety, wanna tell your father and sister about last night?"

"What d'you mean? They were there when we got creamed."

"No, I mean about your meeting with the teacher."

Violet turned to look at Dash suspiciously, if not a little pleased, while Bob also eyed his son.

"Uh… we uh…met-Ms.-Gutchewsky-breakfast-was-great-later!" Dash spat out as he sped away from the table.

"Ah, ah, ah, you come back here," Helen said, Dash's ear pinched between her thumb and forefinger on the end of her elastic arm, which gradually got shorter, thus pulling Dash back into the room. "Now you sit down and tell them."

"She, uh, she wants me to move up a grade," Dash said, glancing from the table to the ground.

Violet and Bob both had jaws drop.

Vi was the first to speak. "What?"

"It turns out he's not just fast at running!" Helen exclaimed, smoothing Dash's hair. Dash just looked dubiously from her to his father, who had yet to respond.

"What do you think, Honey? Don't you think Dash could use some stimulation like this?"

His father's dropped jaw spread into a wide smile. "Congratulations, Dash! This is great!"

Even Vi grinned down at the little twerp. "I've got to admit, that's pretty cool, Kid."

Dash grinned uneasily. Personally, he wasn't so sure. Then again, maybe he could just pass off as some kid who just moved. Then the sixth graders wouldn't bug him about being younger and smaller. On the other hand, he didn't really want any extra 'stimulation,' as Helen called it. What's a kid to do?

The rest of the weekend, the family was trying to make Violet feel better about the whole mess of her date, mostly by sucking up to her. Which only made her more upset due to the fact that she was offended by their thinking she needed to be sucked up to. The weekend was also spent, between Helen and Dash, arguing over this whole moving up a grade thing (Dash lost). Bob spent the days giving Helen a break from watching over Jack-Jack. And job-searching.

Before they knew it, it was Monday morning. Bob was out early for a job interview as a mailroom manager, and Helen was dropping Violet off at the high school, then Dash at the elementary school (where she made a huge fuss over her new sixth grader) before heading out to do errands. However, something was happening elsewhere. Something very big.

Tony sat on the morning bus only half awake. He was thinking about Friday. The Incredibles had really saved Violet's and his skins. Not that Violet hadn't had her own share of glory. After all, she'd taken that hit to the arm helping him out of the theater, didn't she? He'd have to thank her for that, he guessed. Tony felt a little guilty over how the date had turned out, but at least no one got hurt, right? Gosh, how he wished he could sleep in another hour.

The bus turned the corner to where the last stop before the high school was. It was a house across the street from the movie theater. Tony looked across the bus out the opposite window of his own at the yet-to-be-cleaned-of-debris lot. Deciding he'd rather not look, he looked back out his window, where some debris lay strewn across the sidewalks.

But something here caught his eye. He looked closer. Glass, shattered. A small boulder of theater building lay not far from the sidewalk in a grass lot, and in line with it was shattered glass. When his eye followed the line of the glass, it came to the broken and bent frame of a phone booth. He looked at the phone, still whole and unharmed…

**Dun dun dun… I dunno. You'll see next chapter.**

**Review…?**


	13. WARNING: we are in trouble

**So you like the last chapter? Me hope so! Cause this one is going to be a bit short. And I'm giving you a bit of a reminder of where we left off, so don't flip out.**

Tony sat on the morning bus only half awake. He was thinking about Friday. The Incredibles had really saved Violet's and his skins. Not that Violet hadn't had her own share of glory. After all, she'd taken that hit to the arm helping him out of the theater, didn't she? He'd have to thank her for that, he guessed. Tony felt a little guilty over how the date had turned out, but at least no one got hurt, right? Gosh, how he wished he could sleep in another hour.

The bus turned the corner to where the last stop before the high school was. It was a house across the street from the movie theater. Tony looked across the bus out the opposite window of his own at the yet-to-be-cleaned-of-debris lot. Deciding he'd rather not look, he looked back out his window, where some debris lay strewn across the sidewalks.

But something here caught his eye. He looked closer. Glass, shattered. A small boulder of theater building lay not far from the sidewalk in a grass lot, and in line with it was shattered glass. When his eye followed the line of the glass, it came to the broken and bent frame of a phone booth. He looked at the phone, still whole and unharmed.

The _phone!_ An image, a memory, an impossible memory flashed through Tony's skull. Violet shoving him into a phone booth, then shoving him back out as a boulder flew into the glass box.

Tony placed his fingertips to his temple. No, it wasn't possible. He and Violet weren't anywhere near a phone booth when the theater was attacked.

Another impossible flashed through his head. A huge drill coming through the theater. A car-sized robot shaped like a rat coming towards them. Violet helping him into the projector room above the theater.

Tony wiped his face with his entire hand, trying to make sense of it all. But they weren't in the theater room that had been attacked, it had been the next one over! They hadn't been in any projector room!

The door was locked, they were trapped in the room. Violet broke the window and they jumped.

It wasn't possible! Tony was holding his head with both hands now.

Debris boulders showering over them. Tons of Robot Rats. The 'Mole.' The phone booth. Asking for his cell phone. The Incredicar. Frozone. Picking up Rapid Fire, no, Dash from those woods. Elastigirl threatening to ground Vi. Violet raising a forcefield to protect them from a boulder. Twice. Violet putting on a mask and revealing her Incredible uniform.

Tony gasped for breath. It… it wasn't possible. No, no that other memory of the evening, that's what was wrong.

'_So I'm not going to remember any of this?'_

_'No…'_

The bus started up again, headed to the high school. Tony laid his head back and closed his eyes as the truth played back in his mind. The jerk of the bus stopping in front of the school brought him back to the rest of the world.

What was he supposed to do now? He knew he wasn't supposed to remember. That he was protected by law by that lack of memory. That the Incredibles depended on it, as did Frozone. But he couldn't just fake it with that load of baloney they gave him as replacement memories. But if Vi and her family had managed to 'live a lie' for fifteen years, couldn't he do this for them?

As Tony stepped off the bus and began to walk to the doors, he saw Violet get out of another rental car from the corner of his eye.

"Oh boy."

**Ta daa! Houston, we have a problem! You know, nothing big. We just lost the space shuttle is all. Okay, random thing there.**

**Review…?**


	14. Everyone in this world is crazy

**Lum te tum tum tummyyyy, look at all the gorgeous reviews! They were wrong, reviews are a girl's best friend! Thank you much! Chapter 14! We are on a roll! Ever notice how history seems to repeat itself? Or how brothers can be really confusing? Or how whipped cream smells really weird? Maybe I should stop there…**

Dash felt… well, not too good. _Stimulation, my foot!_ he thought to himself as he recalled his mother's arguments for moving up a grade. As the eleven-year old walked into his new classroom, he felt very much like rolling up into a ball and staying that way forever and a day. **(A/N hey! That rhymed!)** Sixth graders seemed a lot taller up close. Since the morning bell hadn't officially started school yet for the day, the students were jumbled about, talking about their weekends and how much it sucked being back in school.

Suddenly, Dash felt someone bump into him from behind. He swiveled around to find himself face to face with a boy who had to be the tallest twelve-year-old on the planet.

"Sorry," the round-faced boy said, stepping around Dash. "Didn't see you there." With that, the very tall boy went to sit with another group of boys (none of which came within a foot of his height).

_I can handle this_, Dash thought to himself, rather uneasily, as he walked to an empty desk and sat in it.

"Hey, new kid…"

_I'm dead_.

Dash turned around to see who'd called him. It was a different boy from the one before, with his own gang of pals, but this one seemed pretty tall as well. Slowly Dash walked up to this boy. He had curly red-blonde hair that seemed like it would be a lot of fun to try to get a comb through.

"Yeah?"

"What's your name?"

"Call me Dash."

"You new here?"

"You could say that."

"My name's Luke."

"Skywalker?"

"Very funny."

Dash just smiled awkwardly. It unnerved him that he was this balled up. He was usually the center of attention, or at least confident in himself in crowds.

"You're kinda short," a boy next to Luke said.

"Shut up, Ernie," Luke said. "Well, as a piece of advice, I'd suggest steering clear of those guys." Luke nodded towards the tall boy and the three boys with him.

"Why?"

"They're loony."

The bell rang. Immediately the desks filled, and Dash found himself stuck in the front row, his least favorite spot. A woman ran into the room, tripping over her own feet and into her desk, causing pencils and papers to go everywhere. The students tried to muffle their snickers as the teacher picked everything back in its proper place, smiling knowingly at the class.

"Well good morning," she said.

"Hi, Ms. Niblack!" a girl who Dash assumed to be the teacher's pet said in return.

"How was everyone's weekend?"

There was a general grunt from the class.

"That exciting, huh? Well, I've got a few announcements. For starters, where is…" Ms. Niblack checked a list… "Dashiell Parr?"

Dash stood up, feigning apathy. "Call me Dash," he said.

"Class, this is Dash…"

_Oh please don't tell them I'm a fifth grader!_

"He just moved up a grade because he was too darned smart for the other fifth graders."

_Perfect_.

"So let's give him a warm welcome."

There was a small applause from the class, more out of acknowledgement of their teacher than kindness towards Dash. He sat back down and wished very badly he was back in ol' Bernie's class, putting thumbtacks on his chair.

Dash's father, who had left for a job interview early in the morning, was feeling a bit lighter than his son. Robert whistled happily as he went down the sidewalk of downtown, preferring to walk over taking a cab home. He'd finally gotten a job. Sure, it was as a mailroom clerk, but he didn't care anymore. So long as he could provide for his family, that was all that mattered. Who knew, maybe after Congress got some sense knocked into them, he could quit this job and go back to living off NSA checks like in the glory days. But until then…

Bob went over it again in his head. Start tomorrow, seven in the morning to two in the afternoon. He'd get weekends off, too. It wouldn't be so bad. Unless…

Robert's pace slowed a bit, and instead of looking at the clouds as he had been, his gaze turned to his feet. What if… What if the debates in D. C. didn't turn out well? What if they had to remain in hiding? What if the restrictions got even tougher? Eventually the money for Syndrome's defeat would run out, and after that, what? The pay he'd be getting wouldn't be enough to pay for the house, rental car(s), groceries, … And what about his kids? They'd go through their lives without decent training with their powers. They'd never be able to help people in the way they were born to do. Robert sighed as he walked.

What about the Underminer? What if things got tougher, like McCormick wanted, before they were able to catch the Underminer? Violet was already down because of the accident on Friday; if they didn't catch the Underminer one way or another, that would only bring her lower. Maybe as low as she was before Nomanisan. Dash, too…

Just then, Mr. Incredible heard something happening behind him, about a hundred feet away, that sounded a great deal like someone robbing someone else of their purse. He froze there on the sidewalk listening, eyes wide with anticipation. His mind analyzed the situation he'd hear a thousand times before. There was the scream of anger and fear, then the fall, and next was the sprinting footfalls accompanied by several 'Somebody catch him!'s, with no one moving.

_Wait for it, wait for it…_

POW!

Right as the crook was about to pass him, you-know-who held his rock-hard arm in front of the burglar's face. And then his lights went out. Oh dear. Someone call an ambulance. (that's sarcasm by the way)

"Whoa!" A young man nearby exclaimed, running up to Bob (as were others). Bob noticed the boy had a camera with him, and one terrible word ran through his mind: press.

"That was so cool! How'd you- hey where'd you go?"

Bob was power walking away. As people gathered around the fallen crook and not-so-stolen purse, the young man hurried to catch up with the long strides of Mr. Incredible.

"Hey, hey wait up!"

"Not good not good not good."

"Hey that was amazing back there!"

"Uh…"

"Hey, mind if I take your picture? I could run a little article for the paper tomorrow!"

"I'm not really fond of pictures," Bob said, trying to politely scare off the reporter/photographer.

"Oh c'mon! It'd be a great story! The public could really use a story like that, what with the Underminer reeking havoc and all! C'mon, it'll only take a second!"

"Really, I can't. Besides, it was nothing, really."

"Nothing! That was… I dunno!" The reporter struggled to find words that would capture this small-town hero's heart. "It was amazing! …Brilliant, uh… Incredible!"

Bob noticeably flinched. Luckily, the reporter wasn't looking right at him.

"Now there's a title! An Average Mr. Incredible! It'd be a great story! It'd really help out the fellows in Congress, know what I mean?"

"What?"

"You know, McCormick! Heck, he could use all the help he could get. Huh?"

Mr. Incredible had disappeared. Ten minutes later, Bob sat on a bench in City Park, looking befuggled at a tree which he had recently kicked, thus denting the thing.

Helen picked up some bananas and tested their weight in her hand. She and Jack-Jack were grocery shopping.

"What do you think, Jack-Jack?"

The baby ga-gaed.

"Exactly what I was thinking! We'll go with the other ones," Helen said, putting the bananas back and picking up a different bunch and placing those in the cart. "Oh, excuse me," she said to a man who'd been trying to reach the bananas as she left the stand.

"Not a problem."

Helen went on with her shopping, making faces at Jack-Jack and telling him what different things were (and rushing to the bathroom as very quickly as possible when the boy flambéed himself). They were going down the baking-needs aisle when Helen found herself in a bit of a predicament. Jack-Jack had picked up a small bag of flour.

"Sweety, flour's not on the list, although I do appreciate the gesture. Come on, sweety, put it back, please."

Jack-Jack was not letting go.

"Come-on-Sweety!" Helen said between her pulls, finding it very difficult to pry open the child's fingers. She almost had it when Jack-Jack started to cry.

"Oh, baby, don't cry over flour. It's just flour!"

"Ma mowur!" Jack-Jack cried angrily.

"No, store's flour. You can have as much flour as you like at home, okay?"

Not okay. Jack-Jack wanted _that _flour. Even if it meant going demon-thingy on Helen in a grocery store.

"Whoa!" Helen cried, letting go of the flour bag in shock. The little beast started gnawing on the bag savagely.

"Nonononono!" Helen shouted in a whisper so as to avoid catching anyone's attention. Thank heavens they were the only ones on the aisle. "Jack-Jack," Helen argued with the demon-thingy through gritted teeth. She was now pushing against the cart in which Jack-Jack sat with her feet while trying to pull the bag out of her son's mouth. "Jack-Jack, sweety, Mommy really doesn't wanna pay for this! Mommy just wants to pay for our groceries! You can have flour when we get-"

Pop! The bag exploded.

As flour flew up and eventually settled on the discontented mother, Jack-Jack changed back to his normal self, delighted with the non-cold snow he'd just made.

"Um…"

Within a second, Helen had cleaned the flour all up, resealed the bag, and put it back on the shelf. And was smiling awkwardly at whoever had addressed her. It was the fellow she'd bumped into at the banana stand.

"Yes?"

"Uh, I was just wondering, would you be interested…"

Helen was making a very odd disgusted face, unsure of what to expect.

"… in a career in modeling."

_Hold it._ Helen looked around her. Yes, she was the only one in the aisle. It took her a couple tries to get her mouth around the only word the could express her. "What!"

"And you're baby too!"

"What?"

"You see," the man began, taking a business card from his pocket and handing it to her, "I work for a home-decorating magazine, and we're always looking for new faces in the pictures!"

Helen took the card, blinking a few times with a cocked, confused eyebrow. She glanced at the card. She had a subscription to this magazine.

"Of course you'll want to think it over, and I'm sure you'll want to call the magazine and double check stuff. But we really are looking for a new look for this day and age, and I gotta say, you and this fellow here would be great for the job." With that, the man continued with his shopping, calling over his shoulder, "Don't forget to call!"

"But- Wait- What-? Ahh!" Helen heaved a sigh and looked down at her thirteen month old son. Who giggled in return. "Ho boy."

"Hey, Vi, what's got you down?" Sarah asked Violet as they walked to their first hour class.

Violet made a grunt in response.

"Ah, so the date didn't go too well, huh?"

Violet shook her head. "We went to the theater."

"You don't mean the movie theater that-"

"That's the one."

"Oh, that sucks! Well, it could be worse."

"How's that?"

"At least you're both alive (Tony is alive right?)! And at least the date wasn't awful just because you two didn't hit it off or something."

"Yeah I guess." Violet did like looking at it that way. Maybe things wouldn't turn out so bad. As the bell rang and she took a seat in her classroom, she absently wondered what kind of memories they'd given Tony instead of what really happened.

Half an hour later, Violet came to a very important decision. Never again would she take a math class during the first hour of school. Like everyone else in the class, at 7: 30 in the morning her brain was not on. And what was truly remarkable was the fact that the teacher's brain seemed to be awake, peppy even. Vi guessed coffee had something to do with that.

It seemed to take forever for that first class to go by, but finally the bell rang and hallways began to fill with liberated teens. Rodney and Catherine, two acquaintances of Violet's, walked with Vi on their way down the halls to English class. Meanwhile, Tony Rydinger was walking in the opposite direction, towards the science room across the hall from their geometry class. Tony's head was swamped with everything he'd seen and everything Vi had told him at the NSA office. But through the hustle and bustle of passing time, Tony saw Violet headed in his direction.

Tony panicked. He couldn't handle lying to her face right now; he didn't even know if he could lie at all with all the thoughts swimming around his head. So he decided (rather quickly) he would avoid the problem. "Avoid the problem" being he sprinted to the stairs to the lower level of the building and threw himself over the banister, landing painfully on the stairs and losing his balance so he rolled down the stairs and into the feet of the freshman class principal.

"Uh…Sorry about… that." Tony stood up awkwardly and tried to hurry to his next class via a different route. But the principal stopped him.

"Rydinger, correct?"

Tony turned around. _Please God, please don't._ "Yeah."

"Yes, I could tell, you look much like your older brother, Jason. How is he, by the way?"

"Jason? Uh, he's… fine," Tony said, shuffling his feet. He did not want to be talking to his principal right now.

"I take it he's adapted well to college life?"

"Yes."

The principal walked up next to Tony and began to talk quietly and gravely into his ear. "Tony, don't do that ever again. Otherwise I'm going to have to send you to an emotional counselor. I'll keep my mouth shut once and only once. Suicide is not the answer to your problems, Tony."

_What-! What-? What the heck is he-?_ "I wasn't-!"

"Talk to Jason. He'll be glad to listen I'm sure. And say hello to him for me won't you? Good day, Rydinger." With that, the principal was gone.

Tony stood dumbstruck at the man's … what the heck was he supposed to call it! He was expecting to be getting in trouble for 'creating a disturbance' with his 'rough-housing.' Now he was supposed to be one of those depressed suicide-person! What the-! Tony couldn't handle all this anymore. _Just go to class_, he told himself. The bell rang.

"Great."

**So what'chya think? You know, I'd like a pop-tart. Later.**

**Review…?**


	15. You idiot

**Whoooooooooaaaaaaaaaaa! I'm on a roll! I broke 40 reviews! You guys rock (does a dance). Know what? My dog is such a cat. He purrs. Weird.**

"You're late, Rydinger."

"I know," Tony said to his history teacher. It was the hour before lunch, after which there would only be one more class.

"If I recall correctly, you're brother Jason was never late to my classes."

Tony just rolled his eyes and took a seat towards the back of the class. The history class had students from freshman to senior, so Tony thought himself very lucky to have his best friend in the class with him. It still boggled his mind that his brother and best friend had the same name.

"Hi Tony," a sophomore said as he walked by.

"Hi Lucy."

"Hey Dash!" It was lunch time for the sixth graders at the elementary school, and Dash had been looking for a place to sit.

"Huh?" Dash looked around to see who'd said his name. It was the super-tall boy Luke had warned him not to hang out around too much.

"Come sit with us!" the boy called to him, motioning to his table of friends. For a moment, Dash glanced at Luke's table.

"We don't bite," the boy joked. Dash sat down at the circular table with the tall boy and his friends. "I'm Mickey," the tall boy said, smiling broadly and sticking out a hand to shake. Dash took it. Then Mickey started to point to the others at the table. "This is Dodger, Jimmy, and Alice."

"Hi," Dash said for lack of a better thing to say.

Dodger just nodded, his hair falling into his eyes.

Jimmy said, "It's Jim," as he eyed Mickey as though this were a discussion they'd had before.

Alice giggled at Jim's remark for some reason and said to Dash, "Nice to meet ya!" thus revealing her far from perfect teeth.

Dash looked them all over in a glance. Mickey was very tall, as previously stated, with dark skin and straight black hair he kept cut short. Dodger reminded Dash of Violet not that long ago; baggy pants and shirt, curly silver-blonde hair he let grow out to cover his face… Jimmy or Jim or Jimbo or whatever had floppy brown hair and looked like a future T-Bird from the musical Grease. Alice looked shorter than even Dash, and her dark afro was pulled back into a tight ponytail so it all poofed out the back.

"So how'd you get moved up a grade?" Alice asked. Dodger shoved her a bit. "What!" she exclaimed.

"Be polite," he hissed.

"My mom," Dash answered Alice.

"How old are you?" Jim asked, sipping from an apple juice box.

"Eleven."

"Hey, you're the same age as me!" Alice beamed. This statement also felt like it had to do with a previous conversation.

"We give her a hard time about being younger than us," Mickey explained. "Guess we can't do that anymore!"

Dash felt a little out of place here. He was beginning to miss his friend Todd from last year.

Suddenly there was a bunch of snickers and guffaws from the table behind Dash. Dash looked behind him to see. It was Luke's table; it seemed that Luke had told a joke. He turned and looked at Dash and waved. Dash waved back. From where he was, he couldn't see the others at the table frowning at Luke and his buddies.

When Dash and the rest of the table turned back to their meals, Mickey asked him, "Why were you hanging around that guy all morning?"

It was true, Dash, Luke, and Luke's buddies had been pulling harmless pranks and had done their work together all morning long. Dash shrugged. "Why not?"

Mickey wasn't looking at Dash anymore, but instead stared down at his sandwich, or rather through his sandwich. "Because he's a self-absorbed jerk who doesn't have a single redeeming quality."

Dash wasn't a hundred percent sure what 'redeeming' meant, but he seemed to get the message that Mickey and Luke were not close. Neither were any of the rest of the guys at the table.

Dodger seemed to decide it was time to change the subject. "So you guys hear about the movie theater down by the high school?"

"Yep."

"You bet!"

Dash glanced around. "Uh, yeah."

"No, what happened?" Mickey asked, and Dash was glad the boy wasn't thinking about Luke anymore, though he wasn't sure why. Personally, he thought Luke was all right.

"You don't know? The Underminer, that's what happened!" Alice exclaimed.

"No way!"

"Very way," Jim said as he leaned back in his chair… and fell backwards over it.

"Were the Incredibles there?" Mickey asked. The way he was sitting in his seat made Dash think there was some reason in particular he wanted to know if the Incredibles were there.

"Yeah," Dodger said.

"Oh, that is so cool!" Mickey sighed as he watched Jimmy recover from his fall.

"I wonder what it's like being a super…" Alice wondered aloud.

"Probably not that different from being normal," Dash said before he could stop himself.

"You think?" Jim asked.

"Maybe a little different," Dash said, trying to recover.

"A little? It certainly beats being normal and boring!" Mickey exclaimed.

Dash wasn't liking where this conversation was going very much. "So what do you guys do for fun?"

"Like our hobbies or something?"

"Yeah, I guess."

The kids at the table seemed to smile. They also seemed to be thinking about the same thing.

"What?" Dash asked smiling.

"We," Jim said, "are runners."

"Really?" Dash said. _This _he could work with.

"Yep! You just wait until junior high! We'll show 'em how it's done, won't we!" Alice giggled. Dash already knew there weren't any _school-sponsored _sports in elementary school.

"That's cool!"

"You really think so?" Dodger asked.

"Yeah, I'm a runner too!"

"I like this kid more and more!" Alice yelled.

"Don't call me a kid, I'm the same age as you."

Alice shrugged and giggled.

"Just like Rapid Fire!" Mickey exclaimed as he pretended to punch out a villain. "You a Rapid Fire fan?" he asked Dash.

"You could say that."

"All right! I knew you were smart, never doubted it for a second!" Jim said.

"Dude, if he wasn't smart he wouldn't have been moved up a grade."

"You killed it, Dodger."

"Well excuse me!"

Helen was sitting at the family computer. Just sitting there, not doing anything in particular. She just stared at it. The blank, not-on screen stared right back. _I shouldn't_, she kept thinking, _it wouldn't matter anyways_. That's what she told herself, even as she turned on the computer and got on the internet. She went to the website of the home-decorating magazine. After a little searching, she came to the conclusion that the man she'd met at the grocery store had been honest. It said there on the screen in big, bold, red letters "Looking For New Faces!" Helen looked at the little business card next to the computer.

She turned off the computer. It didn't mean anything. She was happy where she was. She didn't need a job. She resumed her floor-sweeping.

Helen looked at Jack-Jack, asleep in his play pen. On the nearby counter was a stack of bills not yet paid…

Jack-Jack started to cry in his sleep.

_He must be having a nightmare_, Helen thought, putting down her broom and walking over to her son. It was when she was about there when something… new happened. Above Jack-Jack, a bunch of dark clouds appeared, floating just below the room's ceiling.

Krack, BOOM!

Rain and lightning. Go figure.

_Definitely a bad dream._

The now wet phone began to ring, and Helen picked it up.

"Hello?" she yelled over the lightening that had nearly singed off her hair.

"My Gawd, Dahling, wat are you _doing_ over thare?"

"Hi, E. Look this isn't a good time- WhOA!" Helen screamed, ducking as a huge stuffed panda suddenly feel from the 'sky.' _What on earth…?_

"Of course, of course, time es ov ze essence, Dahling! That is why you must come immediately! Bring ze daughter's suit you shredded!"

"No, I mean yes it is, ut, I mean-" Helen ducked as a stuffed giraffe fell from the 'sky.'

"Let's see now, let's see now. I'm busy today, need to put up wiz another Barbie doll who won't eat carbs. How's tomorrow at four?"

"Bash, ut, Mash, er, **Dash **has a dentist appointment! I mean Violet, I mean-" Helen screamed as many, many stuffed animals suddenly fell like rain from Jack-Jack's clouds, all landing in a heap on top of Helen. The rain stopped as Jack-Jack woke up, and Helen climbed out from under tons of stuffed creatures until her upper body was finally out of the avalanche.

"Wat are you doing over zare, Dahling? Are you all right?"

Helen blew some of her hair out of her face. "Peachy."

"All right, see you tomorrow at three, okay? Good bye!"

"Wait, you said four, wait E-!"

Edna had already hung up the phone. Helen looked from the phone to Jack-Jack, who sat giggling with his new toys. In her frustration, Helen really wanted to scream. But, because she didn't want Jack-Jack to start crying again, she instead settled for flopping over in the hill of stuffed animals while pretending there were no problems in the world.

Lunch time. Violet sat down at her lunch table with her cafeteria meal.

"You don't wanna be eating that," Kari said through a bite of her sandwich.

"Yes I do," Violet said as she raised the pizza to her mouth at the same time her stomach let out a very loud growl. She took a bite.

"Erk!"

"She told you not to eat it."

Violet forced it down. "Yuck! That is not pizza!" she exclaimed, pushing the plate away from her.

"You're right, it's rubber with expired tomato paste on it," Sarah said, poking the pizza with her fork.

"I'm gonna go get something from the vending machine, I'll be right back." Violet got up from the table and walked out of the cafeteria. Within a short while, she was in the commons where the vending machines were. Lunch time was the only time of day where you could find the commons empty of people.

Looking at her money, Vi went to the snack machine first and got a bag of chips. Next she went to the soda machine. However unseen by her, Tony walked into the commons from a hallway behind her. Tony freaked when he saw her. No matter how hard he tried, all day he could only think about all the crap Friday had brought him, and still he didn't feel up to facing Vi. So what did he do? He jumped into a recycling bin.

Violet finally decided on some Cherry Coke and put her money in. She hit the button, but nothing came. Tony hid lower in the bin as she started to hit the machine… and call it names.

"C'mon! All I want is a soda!"

You might be wondering why Tony didn't just leave the commons. Well he was pretty hungry, too, and the only way to the cafeteria was 'guarded' by Vi. All of a sudden, Tony's stomach let out a terrible growl loud enough for Violet to hear. However, a very large upper-classman sporting a football jacket was walking by and blocked Tony from Vi's view when she turned around to look. So she just turned back and kicked the soda machine.

"Ow!" she yelped, holding her foot. The football player changed course and stepped up next to the machine.

"Here, you do it like this," he said. He held down the Cherry Coke button and kicked the machine from the side. Five Cherry Cokes and a Sprite flew out of the machine. The football player helped himself to the Sprite and said, "That's a football team secret, so don't go tellin' anybody."

"'Kay, thanks," Vi said, grabbing a Coke for herself. Tony watched, petrified he might be seen, as he quietly climbed out of the recycling bin.

The football player (who had seen him watching Vi from the bin) picked up another soda from the ground. Tony suddenly realized what he was about to do, and he frantically started waving his arms around to try and keep him from saying anything. The football player didn't understand this behavior and looked at Tony like he was a chicken with the head of a horse, but still politely held the soda out towards him.

"You want one?" he asked.

Tony slapped a hand over his eyes, but the moment Vi turned around to see who football-dude was talking to, Tony struck a position so it looked as though he'd only just walked into the commons. "Sure, I'll take one."

The football player, who was weirded out by the freshman more and more, tossed the Cherry Coke to Tony. He immediately left the commons (with a new conversation starter for lunch with his friends). Tony opened the soda, and it exploded in his face.

Violet put a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing. "Hey Tony," she said, picking up her extra sodas. She walked over to him as he dried his face off as best he could with his sleeve.

"Hi Vi."

"Next time wait before you open a soda."

"I'll remember that."

"How was your weekend?"

"Great," Tony said, smiling almost guiltily. _What do I do!_

"That's good."

"Yeah! Brilliant!"

"What class do you have left?"

"Uh…" Tony's mind went blank. What's a class again? "Ask me again later, I can't think of it right now."

"Okay." Violet couldn't help feeling there was something on Tony's mind. He seemed very uncomfortable.

"So, that was… some movie Friday huh?" Tony said, laughing uneasily. Violet did the same.

"Yeah, amazing."

"Incredible." Tony mentally beat himself up. It was the slight flinch of Tony's face when he said it that made Vi uneasy.

"Yeah…"

Tony tried to recover. "W-what's really incredible is how you kept me from being squashed like a bug by those Robot Rats!" Tony again beat himself up. He was mixing up the fake memories and the real ones.

"I guess…"

"Hey, uh, well, how's your arm?" Tony asked.

Vi looked down at the bandage. "It's fine."

"When is your suit going to be fixed?" Tony gasped and slapped a hand over his mouth, all the while thinking one thing.

_YOU IDIOT!_

**Voila. You know, I keep coming up with characters and putting them in here without even thinking about it. I should really keep better track of them. I think I wrote this chapter in a different style than usual. Weird huh? I didn't have pop-tarts recently, maybe that's why.**

**Review…?**


	16. A train wreck

**Wako Taco Amigos! Boy, that was weird. I should stop eating pop-tarts. They make me act funny. Wow, I'm almost to 50 reviews. That is so totally coolness, you guys all rock very much out! I should buy you all chocolate, or something. Whatever, on to the story!**

Tony still held his hand over his mouth, his eyes as big with surprise at what he'd said as Violet's. And believe me, Violet's eyes were huge. She just turned and stared at Tony, her mouth slightly agape with shock. Not to mention she dropped the sodas she'd been carrying. For a minute she struggled to just get her mouth around a word at all.

"What?"

Tony shut his eyes tightly and started to bang his head against the wall. "Stupid stupid stupid!"

Violet grabbed one of Tony's arms and pulled him away from the wall. "Knock that off and come on!" she hissed, pulling him after her as she charged down a random hallway. After walking for a good five minutes down the halls, they finally came to an empty classroom that was unlocked. They both walked in and Violet locked the door.

"YOU KNOW!"

"It was an accident!"

"What do you mean it was an accident!" Violet yelled, trying to contain her emotions as best she could. She suddenly reminded herself of her mother.

"I didn't mean to remember, it just sorta happened!"

The bell rang, but they both ignored it. This was so much more important than class.

"It just sorta happened," Vi repeated.

"Yeah."

"Don't tell me the NSA memory whatever-they-do didn't work."

"No it did! It's just that the school bus passed by the movie theater and a gun went off in my head!"

Violet paused a second. "A gun went off in your head?"

"Okay, bad choice of words."

Violet slumped down in one of the chairs in the classroom. "I am in so much trouble." Vi sighed. "Well, taking you back to NSA is no good, you'll just remember again..."

Tony sat down in a chair opposite Violet. He felt guilty (and stupid) saying it, but it just had to be said. "So you're a superhero."

"You could say that."

"Your folks…?"

"Yep."

"And your brothers?"

"Both of 'em."

It was Tony's turn to sigh. "Sorry about all this."

"Don't be."

"So now what?"

Violet thought…

And thought…

And thought some more…

Half and hour later, still thinking…

"Any ideas?" she asked sullenly, having thought of zilch.

"Not one."

"I guess… in that case," Vi said hesitantly, "that means I'll just have to trust you won't be telling anyone until we think of what to do."

"Should we ask your parents?"

The idea made Violet sick to her stomach and she shook her head no. She was thinking about the night in the cave at Nomanisan. Where her mother had given Dash and her their masks.

_Your identity is your most valuable possession_._ Protect it._

Violet couldn't help but feel as though she'd failed her mother again, the way she had on the plane. Only this seemed a hundred times worse.

Meanwhile, Dash was in gym class. "Five laps, Runts, let's go!" the gym teacher yelled, as the class groaned. **(A/N I know I would)** Dash just rolled his eyes. He could have run a zillion in a heartbeat.

"Hey (huff puff) Dash!" Luke said as he ran up alongside Dash, who was taking it extremely easy.

"Yeah?"

"Why (huff) were you sitting (huff) with those losers at lunch?"

"They seemed all right to me."

"Ah (huff puff). You're so naïve, Dash!"

"Don't talk down to me!" Dash suddenly felt a wave of unexplainable anger towards Luke rush through his body.

"Easy, easy! (huff) I didn't mean nothin'."

Just then, Mickey whizzed by the two boys, calling over his shoulder, "See ya later, Ladies!"

Alice ran by next. "Who do you think you're callin' a lady, Buster! You get back here, I'm gonna give you a piece of my mind, if you think you're just gonna walk away you gotta another thing comin, Buddy!"

Then came Dodger. "Alice, please don't kill 'im! Alice! Hey come back! Alice do you hear me!"

And finally, Jimmy, who looked quite odd without his leather jacket. "Hey, I was just lettin' you guys get warmed up! You're gonna need it! Get back here! No fair, you guys know I'm an endurance runner, not a sprinter!"

"(huff) Dumb runners," Luke said under his breath.

"Hey," Dash called to the others. "Wait up!" With that, he left Luke baffled in his dust.

As Luke watched Dash quickly pass Jim, Dodger and Alice until he and Mickey were plainly pushing each other into a race, an anger grew from his stomach. "You need to learn your place, Parr. No one chooses that moron over me."

--- -The next day - ---

"Now Dash, I'm going to drop you and Jack-Jack off while I take Vi up to get her suit fixed," Helen was saying to her blonde-haired son in the back seat. Vi was riding up front. Apparently E had called earlier in the day and moved the appointment up to one, so Helen, knowing full well she wouldn't be able to get out of the lion's den in time to pick up the kids, had picked up the kids early from school while Bob was still at work.

Work… it was such a nice word. Helen had been ecstatic that Bob had gotten the job, yet something had seemed to be on his mind. Then he'd seen the magazine business card and Helen had to explain the whole weirdness of her situation. What truly boggled her mind was the fact that Bob had encouraged her to give it a go. Weird.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"If I knew where we were going I coulda been there already."

"Well you don't know, now do you? Now stop bugging your brother and sit still."

"I am not bugging Jack-Jack!"

"Dash, there's this thing called a rearview mirror…"

A few minutes later, Helen stopped the new rental car outside of Dash's and Jack-Jack's stop. She got out of the car with her sons and started to walk to the front door. However, Dash was looking at the house with several doubts. It looked like a train wreck. No seriously. There was scrap in the front lawn.

"Uh, Mom, are you sure we can't just go with you and Vi?"

"Dash, believe me, you would much rather be here," Helen said. It wasn't that she didn't like E, it was that an eleven-year-old might just get killed by her. And who knew what would happen to a thirteen month old.

Helen rang the doorbell, and Dash hung back. He was thinking about how the day couldn't get any worse. The door opened.

It was Dean, the car dude who had made the Incredicar. "Eh, Mrs. Inc, how's it going?"

"Heya Dean. Thanks for taking the boys for me. It won't be too long," Helen said as she handed Jack-Jack to Dean and gently pushed Dash into the room.

"Helen, you're going to visit who?" Dean asked smiling.

"Okay, so it might be a while before we get back," Helen said.

Dean looked down at Dash. "How ya doin', Champ?"

"I'm fine."

"Okay, well you boys have fun, I'll be back later!" Helen called as she walked back to the car.

"We will!" Dean called after her. Dash was looking around the room. This also looked like a train wreck.

**We're gonna have fun next chapter, I promise. (Smiles insane evilly) BWA HAHAHA!**

**Review…?**


	17. D & E

**Bump da baaaaaaaaaa BOOM! Hiya! We're outta pop tarts and that really sucks. "And you want to know something else? I never liked you're spinach puffs. Never!" Ha ha heh okay moving on.**

Violet was silent in the car. It had only been a day and already she was near her breaking point. What was she going to do? Vi wanted to tell her mother about Tony knowing so badly, but at the same time didn't dare. Especially while the woman was driving.

"Mom, that's a red light!"

"I can see that!"

"Well why didn't you stop?"

It would be suicide to tell her mother right now. Maybe if she could get her alone. What was she thinking? She couldn't tell her mom! If she knew she would be in so much trouble! But if she didn't and Helen found out, she'd be in so much worse trouble.

Helen turned down the radio for a second to listen to a sound in the distance ahead. Sirens. It wasn't long before they saw the flashing lights. An ambulance and three cop cars zoomed by going in the opposite direction.

Violet looked at her mother. She knew it killed Helen to see those cars and not be able to follow. It wasn't until after Syndrome that Vi had started to notice it, but she had realized that every time she heard sirens or saw flashing lights Helen would ache to follow. And after Syndrome, Violet had found she felt the same way. It was strange; wanting to break the law by helping the law.

They pulled in front of an odd gate, next to a kind of video intercom system thing.

"Do you have an appointment?" the guard in the screen asked.

"Yes, for 1'oclock (I think)."

"Hold on a second while I check… Name please?"

"Helen Parr… or Elastigirl," Helen said, thinking of how Edna always preferred to use their superhero aliases.

"Let's see n- OW!"

Violet stared as a short… thing suddenly attacked the guard. With a vengeance.

"Go, get out ov here! Wat do I pay you for? Go take a coffee break like all ze other lazy employees I pay around here!"

"Hiya, E," Helen said to the woman on the screen. Violet was feeling a little edgy.

"Ah, Helen! One of my favorites! Come, come in, Dahling! I simply cahn't wait to meet your daughtar!"

The gate opened and Helen pulled forward. "Little nervous, Vi?"

"Just a bit."

"Good, that means you're ready for her."

Bob looked at the large yellow envelope again. All it had was "McCaffrey" scrawled onto it. He looked once more at the cubby boxes that acted as employees' mailboxes at the company he now worked. There were definitely five different "McCaffrey"s that worked here.

_Guess we'll just come back to that one_, Bob thought, placing the envelope at the bottom of the pile of memos and letters he had to sort. Problem was what was left of the pile were all letters/memos that Bob had thought "I'll just come back to that one" when he'd first encountered them.

_And I thought Insuricare was bad._ This job was certainly displaying its downsides. Apparently at this company a "mailroom clerk" is synonymous to "runner of ridiculous and useless errands for anyone else who works here." Furthermore, it turned out his supervisor was some seventeen year old punk who managed to get a summer job at the company and did nothing but play on his Gameboy and shout at Bob to get back to work. If that wasn't enough, the mail room had to be one of the smallest rooms Bob had ever been in. There honestly wasn't any room for him. Which was why some of the file cabinets were now thoroughly dented and the chairs were all smashed to bits. And think, only the first day.

"What d'you say to some football?" Dean asked Dash, tossing the ball in the air. Jack-Jack was presently roaming the room on hands and knees.

"Uh, no," Dash said as he blasted away Bowser on his Gameboy. Unfortunately he blasted away Bowser while Mario fell into a pit of lava. Game Over. Dash started to grumble at the game. Then the batteries went out. "What! I haven't saved in fifteen levels!"

Dash looked up from his place on the couch at Dean who smirked while spinning a soccer ball on his fingertip. "How about soccer instead?"

Five minutes later the boys were all outside and Dash was seriously creaming Dean. Every second it seemed the ball managed to get by Dean and into the make-shift goal behind him. Jack-Jack laughed and giggled at the spectacle.

"What are you laughin' at?" Dean asked the baby, panting.

Jack-Jack giggled. And a bug flew in his mouth. Dash and Dean stared in… in… repulsive fascination, I suppose, as the baby tried to cough out the bug while making some of the strangest faces known to man. Not to mention his head kept switching species. After one very large cough, Jack-Jack shook his head, looked up at Dean. "Wow, that was nasty," he said in a voice similar to news anchor obsessed with his hair.

"WAAAH!" Dash and Dean screamed in unison. Since when do babies talk!

Jack-Jack coughed again, the bug (which looked like it had been deeply sizzled) came out, and Jack-Jack was back to normal. Nonetheless, Dash and Dean both looked like they'd been hit by lightening they were so stunned.

"How bout we go back inside?" Dean proposed.

"Good idea" Dash agreed.

---_ten minutes later_---

"So how exactly do you make supercars?"

"Now if I told you, I'd have to kill ya."

"No seriously, how do they work?"

Dean walked into the room with the pop-tarts he'd been fixing and some baby food Helen had left him. "It depends on the car. Like your dad's old one. That was what my pop called a transformer cause it could go from supercar to 'normal car.' Those are the real tricky ones. Except for some of the bizarre things you're mother asked my pop to make sometimes. But in order to make a transformer, you gotta get this special kinda metal that bends to a certain shape but can unbend and stuff, and you gotta use this special chemical I call bleach to fuel the transformation process because normal gas won't work and you gotta have all the wiring done with this other kinda metal so that when the get near magnets they don't fuzz out because that's the only way to get the wiring to move in a car short of sticking a Spanish Super Meaker in there!" Dean chuckled at his joke.

Dash was lost. No, not lost. He was past lost. Lost was when you took a wrong turn and wound up in the wrong town. This was taking a wrong turn and ending up in a totally different continent.

Dean gave the boy his pop-tarts and placed the baby-food and spoon next to Jack-Jack for him to feed the baby in a minute. He looked at Dash for a second, waiting for what everyone always said.

"Forget I asked." With that Dash started to chew on his pop tarts.

Dean just shook his head and smiled. He walked back into the kitchen, tripping every now and then on some of the junk on the floor. "You want anything to drink, Champ?"

"What d'ya have?" Dash asked as he ducked out of the way of Jack-Jack's laser vision.

"Lessee… milk, apple juice, soda…"

"What're you gonna have?"

"I'm fixin' myself some coffee."

"I'll have that."

Dean walked into the room and leaned over the couch so he could look at Dash. "Excuse me?"

"What, it's only coffee."

"Have you ever had coffee?"

No. "Yeah, sure."

"I dunno, even I get a little weird when I drink this stuff, I don't know how a speedster would react, Dude."

"It's just coffee!"

---_10 minutes later---_

**Ever hit the fast-forward button on a VHS tape while it was still playing? You know how the people walk a lot faster and their voices go up a few octaves? Dash and that… same thing!**

Dash was pacing back and forth in front of Dean (so fast he was wearing a whole in the smoking carpet), coffee in hand and sooooo out of his mind. "So my mom thinks I should move up a grade cause I was getting all good grades like all As and stuff so she's like 'you need stimulation' and I'm like 'I don't need stimulation, I'm stimulated enough right now!'"

"Heh, that's for sure!" Dean said, spooning Jack-Jack another bite of baby food. Jack-Jack wasn't eating though; like Dean, he was entranced by the ball of caffeinated boy in front of him.

"But she's like 'no you need stimulation' so now I'm stimulated! I'm _stimulated_ right outta my lunch money cause of all the big moochers that wanna pound me cause I'm a shrimpy dork who thinks I'm smarter than them."

Dean sat way back in his chair as Dash moved nose-to-nose with him.

"But I don't think I'm smarter than them!" Dash stepped back. "I just do the stupid homework! If they would just do the stupid homework, they could move up a grade and get pounded too (Dash sat down) Is there anymore coffee?"

Dean chuckled and put down the spoon and empty baby-food canister. "So it's kinda rough huh?"

Dash nodded so quickly Dean thought the kid was gonna break his neck. "And then there are these guys Mickey and Luke-"

"Mickey Mouse and Luke Skywalker?" Dean asked.

Dash glared at him. Dean put up his hands saying he was just playing.

"So these guys are both really cool and all and they hate each other and I don't know why and Mickey likes to run like me and all that stuff and Luke _does _do the stupid homework like me and it's really confusing cause I can't figure out why they don't like each other and why is Dodger so shy anyways it wouldn't kill him to speak his mind from time to time you can see him wanting to say stuff but he just won't and it's annoying and Ernie is such a jerk I don't know why Luke hangs around him and here I am caught in the middle and I don't know what to do!"

"So why not just ask?"

"Huh?"

"Why not just ask 'em why they hate each other?"

"Cause I don't feel like getting pounded cause both of them are like a zillion times my size."

"So you're afraid?"

"Me afraid? I'm not afraid of nothing I'm brave I'm brave just like Dad ain't nothing that scares me except for when Jack-Jack gets in a really bad mood I think he gets it from Mom cause she can be pretty scary too especially when she's driving have you ever seen her drive she is nuts and Dad does _not _look at the road at all I really don't wanna know how Vi's gonna turn out after they teach her how to drive."

"I think the subject got changed in there somewhere."

"I wish we could find the Underminer and catch him cause Vi is so stinking down and she's no fun when she's down cause it's harder to annoy her and so are Mom and Dad cause of some stupid politician isn't it funny how adults get down over some stupid things like when their coffee ain't made right I was reading about some celebrity that had a fit cause there weren't enough sprinkles on his birthday cake or something it was really weird."

"All right, I know the subject just changed."

"Wanna race?" Dash asked energetically.

"I beg your pardon?"

Twenty minutes later, if you were parked alongside the country road Dean lived off of, you would have seen two things. One was a small red blur about as tall as a boy and the other was a very huge jet propelled supercar.

"You are not gonna beat my car!" Dean shouted at Dash (well, technically at the windshield because he could see Dash zooming just ahead of his car). Jack-Jack was in the back… Somehow he'd sensed the danger of this whole situation and had gone into demon thingy mode so he could use his claws to hold onto the seat cushion for dear life. Smart kid.

Meanwhile, with Helen and Violet…

Violet was under the microscope with Edna Mode. In fact the only reason she wasn't actually under a microscope was because Helen was there to keep Edna from taking things too far.

Violet could only watch as E zoomed around her at lightening speed measuring her, pinching her, asking questions, etc.

"Wat's your favrate color? You like tea? Cream and sugar like your mother or do you prefer Tabasco sauce like Mr. Incredible? Wat do you think of your suit? How did you tear it? Do you know how to fly a jet?"

Finally E stepped back next to Helen and looked Violet over.

"WHAT!"

"She looks nothing like you, Helen Dahling."

Helen took in a deep, trying-to-remain-calm breath. "Violet, I'd like to introduce you to Edna Mode. E, this is my daughter Violet."

The three began to walk down the halls of E's classical/modern mansion. Violet was thunderstruck by the place. Eventually they reached a medium sized room with a very, very high ceiling. The theme seemed to by Greek gods meets red velvet meets modern. They each took a seat.

"Yes, your suit was quite tricky, one of my hardar assignments I must admit, and now you've gone and ripped it! I guess I'll just have to make you an entire new set of suits for the family," Edna said, not hinting at anything at all, of course.

"Wait, what?"

"No, no E! No new suit! We just need the rip in V's suit fixed! That's all!"

"Of course not! Miss Vi here could not have her own suit and be left to stand out of ze family theme! So we make all new suits! For everyone!"

"No!" Helen exclaimed in a panic. She knew perfectly well if she didn't draw the line quickly Edna would end up making a whole wardrobe of suits. For each family member.

"You could get a new one for junior to accomodat his different shapes and sizes. Or you could get some for the kids for when zey grow."

Helen paused a second, then shook it off. No. She just had to keep telling herself that. "No!"

"But Mom, that's smart," Violet said.

"Don't-!"

"Ah, see? The child is smart!" Edna exclaimed as she hopped onto a table. "We get started right away!"

"E, no!"

Edna began to pout and Helen began to feel guilty. Violet looked between the two and for a second wondered how these two had met.

"Zis is a problem," E said to herself, although she obviously meant for Helen to overhear.

"Why?"

"Nothing, nothing," Edna said politely to Helen. Nothing my foot.

"E, w-what did you do?"

"Nothing at all, Dahling!" Edna said, smiling ever so slightly. "I just assumed you'd be wanting extra suits so I went ahead and made them for you!" Edna said as she pulled on what Helen and Violet had assumed to be a decorative curtain tassel. However, when she pulled on it the huge curtains that covered up the wall behind E suddenly pulled away to reveal an awful lot of Incredibles uniforms.

Helen, with no words to describe to the… whatever of this situation slumped back in her cushiony chair, gripping her forehead. Violet had spit out her tea (although part of that was because it tasted like Tabasco sauce with cream and sugar).

Oh, and not only were there tons of suits, but it went on. "You see, ze idea came to me late at night ze other day and I couldn't help myself. Why not make everyday clothes that accommodate your super powers!"

Violet decided Edna mode was something else. And how she'd known her taste in everyday clothing was beyond her.

Helen tried once more to get control of the situation. "E, while I do appreciate the gesture, this is all so much!"

"Yes yes you can thank me when you win ze Super of ze Year Award, Dahling, now let's discuss the bill." E snapped her fingers twice and a guy who looked like a four-star-restaurant waiter walked in with a bill.

"Super of the Year Award?" Violet asked aloud.

Helen gulped and picked up the bill, nodding to the waiter dude.

"Helen, Dahling, you really must teach your children about ze culture of ze world fifteen years ago for when ze supers are allowed back…"

Helen chocked on a cracker sandwich when she finally reached the bottom of the bill where the price was. Violet scooted over and peeked. Her jaw dropped. _Since when does that much money exist!_

"…it's absolutely insane!"

Helen looked at Edna over the top of the bill. "I couldn't agree more."

**Ta da! That was much fun! Now how the heck am I gonna top it? I guess I could always throw in a dinosaur driving a corvette.**

**P.S. see if you can find a little 'ode' to one of director Brad Bird's previous works in the chapter**

**P.S.S. holy mackeral, I broke fifty! You guys rock! (runs to store to buy everyone pop-tarts!)**

**Review…?**


	18. Assassin

**(I am in love with my Bowling for Soup cd!)… (and my pillow)… (and pop-tarts, of course)**

**Yello, folksies! What's happenin'? Who's not dead? I NEVER HAVE TO TAKE GYM AGAIN! (jumps around room) Or Driver's Ed for that matter. Moving on.**

Helen tapped her fingers on the steering wheel of the car as she and Vi and their costume-loaded car waited for Edna's gate to open for them to leave. When I say 'costume-loaded car', I mean there wasn't even enough room for Helen and Vi in there, and yet they'd managed to get in the car.

"Well," Violet said when the gate opened and Helen pulled forward to look for oncoming traffic. "That was… interesting."

"Get used to it," Helen said. She was about to turn left when-

Zoom! There goes Dash, giggling his heart out, and-

Zam! There goes Dean in a supercar with Jack-Jack in the back, screaming out the window, "You are SO not gonna beat my car!"

"I guess we'll be turning right," Helen said through gritted teeth, and she pulled onto the road.

Meanwhile, Dash was really flooring it… that expression doesn't really work in this situation, does it?… Whatever, he was going insanely fast. And right when he reached the agreed finish- an abandoned lot of sorts across the street from a meadow- SCREEEEEEECH! Dash laughed his head off as he watched Dean go by, the brakes on his supercar falling short of Dash's own feet.

Then he heard something behind him. Dash turned around still chuckling to himself, but when he saw the 'something' his face dropped in horror. It was one of the Underminer's Robot Rats. Only this one seemed bigger than he remembered.

The metal rodent snarled down at him, its red eyes flashing angrily, and Dash suddenly had the wild thought that the thing above him was alive. It took a step towards him, shaking the ground with its weight.

Dash didn't dare take his eyes off it. He began to walk backwards as quickly as he could while the creature advanced.

"N-nice, big rat. Oh boy…" he said as he continued to backpedal. The rat was picking up pace, and every step it took challenged Dash's balance.

The rat whirled around, spinning its tail so that it took Dash's feet out from under him. Dash fell and started to scramble away as quickly as he could. Finally he was able to take his eyes off the Robot Rat and he ran as quickly as he could across the street. However, he watched in terror as a large shadow passed over him… and the Rat landed just ahead of Dash.

The Rat bared its teeth at him and made a sound that resembled someone screaming angrily.

_What do I do?_ Dash raged in his head, again entranced by the robot, stuck walking backwards. _What is it even doing here?_ _Where's Violet when you need her? This is all her fault!_

The rat moved to jump on top of Dash, but the boy darted out of the way, stopping about ten yards away to look at the angry creature. Unfortunately, ten yards wasn't that great of a distance for the rat, and he slashed out with its teeth, only just missing Dash as he again darted away.

_I can't just leave it!_ he thought, frantically searching his head for a way out of this situation.

Well, at this point, the rat was unhappy. Although the human was not wearing a suit, the chemical makeup confirmed it as a super, therefore one of the Incredibles. In it's frustration, if a robot can feel frustration, the rat flat out started to run at the boy. Dash seemed to remember himself, and he ran under the metal beast towards the empty lot again. He was going to try out that pattern Dad suggestion during training the other day…

But he didn't see the ditch.

"Whoa!" Dash yelled as he fell into the ditch. He rolled painfully to the bottom and hit his head against a stone lodged in one of the sides of the ditch. He rubbed the spot with his hand. Then a shadow fell over him, and the eleven-year-old looked up. "Uh oh."

At that moment, Helen and Vi were driving down the highway, arguing over which radio station to listen to. Helen wanted to listen to James Taylor on the soft rock station, and Violet wanted to listen to some normal rock'n'roll.

"Mom, James Taylor? C'mon."

"What? He's good!"

"James Taylor is for depressed middle-aged women who haven't got a life of their own." Violet pushed a button on the radio. It was No Doubt. "See, now this isn't bad."

Helen hit a different button, and James Taylor was back in Mexico.

Vi hit No Doubt.

James Taylor.

No Doubt.

James Taylor.

No Doubt.

James.

No.

James.

No.

Yes.

Hey wait a second…

The rat started scratch into the ditch and Dash rolled out of the way of the sharp steel claws. Left, right, right, scrunch up, left, duck, get on your feet already! Dash felt like this was some sick, screwed up cat-and-mouse game. He knew he'd never keep this up forever. Where was Dean? Would anyone help him at all!

Then it stopped. Dash opened his eyes and took his arms out of the protective position around his head. He stood up and looked up the sides of the ditch. Nothing there…

"What!"

His question was quickly answered. Suddenly, the rat was there again, standing triumphantly above the ditch, glaring down at Dash… with a tree in his mouth.

Dash gasped and started to scramble up the opposite side of the ditch as the tree came crashing down where he'd been standing. "Ow!" he cried, and looked back. One of his legs was trapped beneath the tree. He saw a drop of blood roll down his leg.

"Mom, please, turn it off!" Violet begged through the assortment of clothes, both hands over her ears. Helen had resorted to taping the James Taylor button down.

"I'm driving, so I get to choose the radio station. I think that's fair."

"It's not fair when someone dies!"

"Oh you're exaggerating."

Violet started to pretend she was choking to death. Helen watched her daughter with an amused smile.

Violet suddenly sat up straight. "MOM, THAT'S A TRUCK!"

"Whoa!" Helen shouted as she returned the car to the correct lane.

Dash looked up pitifully at the Robot Rat. Trapped. The rat reached down and clawed at Dash again. The boy curled up over the tree as he felt the dirt he'd been laying being scratched out of place. When he leaned back, the tree moved. He heard a sort of popping crunch, and a searing pain even greater than what he'd already felt move up his leg. "AAAHH!" he cried, reaching for his legs with his hands. _Gotta pull it out!_

"How're things with you and Tony, Vi?"

"Fine…"

"You have seen him since Friday, right?"

"Yeah."

Dash started to pull on his leg frantically, each pull sending pain through his entire body. Again, he ducked as the rat took aim and started to claw at him. A claw grazed his back, and Dash cried out in pain. He oddly remembered something his mother had said to him.

_These guys… aren't like those guys. They will kill you if they get the chance. Do not give them that chance._

"Vi, is something wrong?"

"No," Violet said. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, as soon as we changed the subject to Tony, you started to act rather sullen. Anything you wanna tell me?"

Dash was exhausted, and his leg felt like someone was sticking red-hot iron into it. He just wanted to go to sleep. He looked up fearfully at the rat. It seemed to smile.

"Vi, is there something wrong between you and Tony?"

"Mom, look out!"

The car smashed into the side of one of the Underminer's Robot Rats, knocking the metal creature over.

Dash had to blink a few times to make sure it wasn't a trick of the light. No, the rat had definitely just been swept away by something.

Violet and Helen got out of the car, perplexed by what they saw. Violet stared down at the rat's face. "What the…"

The rat moved its face to glare at Vi, only a few feet away, and it snarled, again making a terrible screaming noise. Violet screamed too.

"Violet!" Helen cried, elasti-grabbing her daughter away from the razor sharp teeth. Good timing too, because if she'd been there a second longer, she would've been pulverized when Dean's supercar crashed into the fallen rodent's head.

"Well, shoot!" Dean exclaimed to Jack-Jack. "Now I have to remake the hood! C'mon, let's find your brother." He got outta the car with the baby.

"Oh! Hey, Mrs. Inc! Uh… did you get a hood ornament while you were out?" Dean asked.

"Very funny."

"Help!" Dash yelled from the ditch. The others jogged over towards Dash's voice.

Helen gasped. "Dash!"

"Mom, help me outta here!"

"How'd you get stuck under a tree?" Violet shouted; she has a zillion questions running through her head, and she asks the most ridiculous one. Ever had one of those moments?

"Shut up!"

"Do not shout at each other," Helen scolded as she elasti-jumped down next to her son. The ditch was deeper than it looked. She kneeled next to Dash. "Hold on, sweetie." She looked over the situation, keeping remarkably cool.

Violet looked over at the 'dead' rat. _If only I'd been here…_ she thought, blaming herself although she didn't realize she was. Dean and Helen were feeling the same way.

"Dean!" Helen shouted up.

"Yeah, Helen?"

"Go get my cell phone, we need Bob!"

"Aye aye, Cap'n," Dean yelled back complete with salute as he -with Jack-Jack- ran over to the rental car. Thankfully, this one must have had a better frame work than the previous ones, and wasn't terribly damaged. He returned to the ditch carrying the phone. (and Jack-Jack)

**WHAMO! You know, I wasn't exactly planning on doing that. All well. This thing's called 'Tribulations' for a reason, I guess.**

**P.S. Wow, almost 60 reviews. I should be getting you guys chocolate instead of pop-tarts**

**Review…?**


	19. I hear Mars is lovely this time of year

**Welcome to Tribulations, where we do our best to screw up the lives of the Incredibles! On our last program, Dash had a little problem with a mouse! What will happen this time?**

**Sorry, odd moment. Uno, I'd like to apologize. I haven't been able to upload at all because of being off at places. I wouldn't feel so bad if it wasn't for two. Two, I had this chapter written around a month ago. In fact, I'm up to thirty. Trois, school is coming, and for that, it must be shot. Do we have an accord? Saw Mary Poppins for the first time ever a few days ago. I know, sad.**

Bob, Helen, Violet, and Jack-Jack waited outside a room at a local hospital. Finally the doctor came out, clipboard in hand, Dash following closely behind him. Dash, on crutches. His left leg had been broken in two places, and he now wore a heavy cast. The gash on his back from where the Robot Rat had scratched him had required stitches. The family immediately flocked him.

"Hey, Dash, how's the leg feel?" Bob asked his son.

"Fine, I guess."

"How's your cast, honey, not too heavy?" asked Helen.

"It's fine, Mom."

Just then, Lucious and Honey Best burst through the hallway double doors. "We came as soon as we heard." Lucious called as he and his wife trotted up to Dash. "How you holdin' up, Speedo?"

"I'm alright."

"Aw, you poor thing," Honey said, looking at the cast. "I'll have to make you a cake."

The doctor cleared his throat and Bob looked up. She motioned with her head and Bob followed her down the hall a ways. "Yes, doctor?"

"Well, whatever fell on your son's leg really messed it up, to be frank," the doctor began. "I want him off his feet as much as possible. You need to make an appointment with me for about two weeks from now to make sure everything's healing well."

Bob was nodding as the doctor spoke. He looked at his son. Honey was making suggestions for cake flavors. She must have just suggested something like pineapple and Swiss cheese, because Dash was suddenly laughing through a slightly disgusted face. He leaned in closer to the doctor speaking in a hushed tone.

"What about his running, will he still be able to?"

"If everything heals well and he has some physical therapy afterwards, I see no reason why he wouldn't be able to continue running."

Bob nodded. "And the cut on his back…?

"You'll have to ask Dr. Moore. I fix fractures, not scratches."

"Alright. Thanks, doctor," Bob said, shaking her hand before returning to the family.

"Who knows," Vi was saying. She was being uncharacteristically **(A/N I can't believe how long that word is)** nice to her brother. "You're a fast runner, a fast learner, maybe you're a fast healer too."

"It took me a month to get over a cold," Dash said.

Meanwhile, the Incredibles had employed Dean to dissect the rat. He opened a door from his house into one of his 'studios.' It was a dark, metal walled room with linoleum flooring, similar to an interrogation room in Dean's opinion, lit by a single hanging light bulb from the ceiling. A metal chair was against the wall with the door. There were three steel tables set up parallel to the walls that didn't have the door in it, about two feet from their corresponding wall. Two were smaller and on wheels, while the larger one had the giant robot laying on it.

Dean ran a hand through his hair and let his breath out. "Oh boy, the things I do."

Dean grabbed some tools from one of the wheeled tables, put on some protective goggles and 'ear muffs', and moved towards the rat.

**(A/N I'd suggest listening to some hard core rock for this part. And read slowly. Imagine it in your head. sarcasm I'm not demanding, am I?)**

First, the steel body-coverings came off. He leaned them against the wall with the chair.

Next Dean removed the tail wirings.

Then he was removing the claws, the rest of the paws, their wirings, and the rest of the legs. He placed them next to the tools on one of the tables.

After that, Dean took a chain saw to the neck, separating the head from the body. The empty wheeled table squeaked under the weight of the head Dean put on it.

He removed to red glass-like eye coverings. He'd been expecting to find some analyzing equipment with the main programming chips behind that, but when he removed the vision analyzing equipment, he was surprised to only find your normal wiring.

"Well where's the hard drive!" he asked, attempting to wipe the grease from his cheek. He pulled up the chair next to the rat head and set to work…

He removed everything from the frame. Sight analyzing equipment, scent analyzing equipment, hearing analyzing equipment, the wiring, even some rotten burrito that some moron left. He even took out the teeth.

Dean was amazed at the level of complexity in the beast. If the thing had artificial intelligence, he'd consider it alive. Of course, that was assuming it had any intelligence. Dean was staring angrily at the empty head frame while drinking some coffee.

He threw a wrench at the head, and it ricocheted into his coffee cup, breaking it. The coffee burst over Dean's grease and oil covered shirt.

"Aw, c'mon!" he shouted as he reflexively stood up. He reached for a rag to wipe the coffee off his pants and shirt. He walked towards the main table as he wiped himself off. He leaned on the table and rubbed his forehead with the other table, looking through his fingers at the robotic rat's body.

"Hmm…"

Dean went to the tool table and grabbed a crowbar. Aiming carefully, he jammed the crowbar into the 'pipe' that was a basic stand-in for a throat. Then he leaned down on it so that the bar and pipe tore through the top of the wiring.

Dean dropped the crowbar and moved next to the hole in the wiring he'd created. He pushed some of it out of the way, and smiled at what he saw. Right where a heart would be in a normal rat were the main chips; the hard drive. He carefully removed the chips and headed for the door.

It took him a while, but Dean finally managed to hook up one of the larger chips to his computer. The contents began to load up and Dean stretched happily. "All right, Mighty Mouse. Let's see what you're made of."

Dean was glad he was a better hacker than his father had been. It still took him about an hour to get through the security on the chip, but finally he was able to access the programming. It turned out the chip was where all the data pertaining to the rat's 'sense' were stored- including a video of everything it saw and heard from activation to detonation. Dean let the video play as he hooked up another chip and hacked into it.

"Figures," he said, looking at the content of the second chip. This one seemed to hold all the actual programming (and I mean all of it). But it was written in such gibberish it would take him hours to interpret it all. So, instead he spent one hour translating it.

The video started over from the beginning when it reached detonation.

Dean looked at the programming on his computer. He took out a sheet of paper and pencil and started to map things out. "Kay… so here's your basic stuff… motion, reaction… huh, a learning robot, idn't that wonderful… geez what a nightmare… what the…?"

Dean didn't understand what he was looking at. He glanced at the video, then back at the programming. He looked over at the last chip. He picked it up. This one was different than the others… He looked for some extra plugs and hooked up the last one as well.

Immediately a new window popped up on screen- no new codes, no new security… It had connected him to the Internet. Dean glanced at the video again, the clicked on something on the new window. As Dean watched, he felt his heart rate speed up. His eyes grew wider and wider as they darted around the screen, taking everything in. After a while, he felt a sort of panic take hold, and he ran out of the room.

That weekend at the Parr residence, Helen had done the unimaginable. She went to a photo shoot for that home-design magazine.

Helen got outta the cab with Jack-Jack and gawked at the skyscraper. She looked down at the address Jacob (the guy who first offered her a job) had given her. "Yeah, it's right." She walked towards the swinging doors… and got stuck. Go figure.

Round and round, Helen went in the swinging door, until an usher finally cam over and helped her out.

"Oh, thank you!" she said to the usher. "They oughta have warning signs!"

"Happens all the time."

Helen looked back down at her paper. She moved to the elevators and hit the up button. As if on cue, business men and women seemed to come through the swinging doors (without getting stuck), and joining Helen by the elevator. When the elevator opened, tons of people yakking on cell phones or palm-piloting (as I call it) or messing with some kind of device piled out of the elevator to the right of Helen and Jack-Jack, while the people who'd been waiting with Helen piled into the elevator to her left. Helen was swept away by it all and was forced to turn around in circles as the people pushed around her. Alas, she became the swinging door. Then the elevator dinged, the doors closed, and Helen was left standing there feeling very much a fool.

Helen walked to the _other_ elevator and hit the up button. Immediately the elevator dinged and the doors opened. Helen walked in immediately for fear of becoming a door again, and hit the button Jacob had told her. There was only one other person there, a large, bald man who was smoking a large cigar.

The man and Helen both looked at each other, and Helen smiled neighborly. The man smiled around his cigar and went back to staring at the door. **(A/N Ah, nothing like an awkward moment in an elevator!)** Helen turned away from the man and coughed as quietly as she could.

The elevator unexpectedly stopped and a younger man with a cigar walked in. Immediately the cigar men started to talk… or at least what Helen thought was talking. They seemed to have trouble actually get real words out from around their cigars, so it just sounded like:

"AAAA, maramawa!"

"AAAA, ararawa!"

"ramayawana."

"oohhh, yama wa."

"oo?"

"raya… iya wamaramawa."

"AAAA, mara arayama!"

Jack-Jack was suddenly overcome with a coughing fit. As Helen comforted the baby, she turned to the 'gentlemen.'

"Excuse me…" she said, "could put out you cigars?"

"Eh?"

"Your cigars.

"arawarara. Arara?"

"Your cigars! Please put out your cigars!"

The men looked at Helen like she was some kind of alien. Luckily, the elevator dinged and Helen was able to promptly leave the men in their… well, smoke.

"HELEN!"

Helen jumped out of her skin as Jacob, and a zillion other people, suddenly surrounded her. Voices were everywhere.

"Helen, I'm so glad you came! Turns out one of our usuals up and quit on us!"

"Oh, look at the pretty baby, lookit'im!"

"Changing room's to the left, food's down the hall, bathroom- we don't got one, set is-"

"All right people, people! Let's look alive out there! I want teamwork! I want goals met! I want gorgeous photos! Ooo, I want that burrito. (chomp) Mmm! No throw it out."

"What are you wearing, my dear, this screams 'Western Living.' Our magazine is called '_West _Living'!"

"Here, stand here!" Jacob said, shoving Helen onto a set while taking Jack-Jack off her hands. Someone handed her a pot of flowers. "Smile!"

Flash!

Someone took that flowers and positioned her by the sink.

"Think 'this is my life!'"

Flash!

Next she was handed a broom.

"Sweep, Helen, sweep like it's your life!" (flash, flash)

"You just said the sink was my life!" (flash)

"That was then, this is now."

Flash!

_Ay carumba!_

"Now here, take your son!" Someone pushed her onto a different set. "You're reading him a story!"

Flash!

"Beautiful! You've got the job!" (flash)

"Hey wait what?"

"Someone get'er to a changing room!"

"Yessir!"

And before she knew it, Helen was in a totally different room (Jack-Jack had been taken to a different one). A room where seventy-something creepy old women poked and prodded her and shoved her into some to the craziest looking outfit's a mother ever saw.

"Go, go now!"

_This is worse than Edna!_

Someone pushed her onto a set that looked like an outdoor garden.

"Yes, (flash) pour! Pour the water on the plants! (flash) That's perfect! (flash) You're a natural, Helen!"

_I'm not doing anything!_

"Stop!" the photographer screamed, and everyone froze to look at him. "Bring ze babay, pleeze."

Jack-Jack, changed into something Helen would NEVER buy, was handed to her upside down. He looked a little dizzy.

As the photographer had Helen pose, everyone resumed work and Jacob started pouring himself over a clipboard. However, it seemed Jack-Jack was not enjoying this. Can we say fire!

"WHOA!" the photographer shouted, coming up from his camera.

"W-what is it?" Helen asked, holding the crying fireball in her hands as she smiled very fakely.

"The baby's on fire! Jacob look!" the photographer shouted, turning to Jacob. Jacob looked up at the photographer from his clipboard.

"Huh?"

Jack-Jack sneezed and was back to normal.

"The baby!" the photographer shouted. "It's on fire!" He and Jacob looked at Jack-Jack in Helen's arms.

Jacob looked back at the photographer. "Rick, you really need to see a doctor. This is the third time this month."

"But I swear!"

"Just shoot the photo before I fire you."

Flash!

"Wardrobe change!"

Helen again was pushed into the room with angry old women. And again she was shoved out.

About half an hour had passed when Helen realized something. She was doing everything with one arm. While Rick and Jacob took a break, Helen tried to figure out… well… where her other arm got off to. Then she found the problem. Her hand had been closed on from the changing room. Now, she'd been pushed all around the ginormous room, and her arm had become a long… well… arm stretched around furniture all throughout the sets. She was about to start problem solving when one of the angry old women must have opened the door. Helen's arm went zap! And it konked out everyone in its path too.

By the time the arm had returned to Helen, she, Jack-Jack, and Jacob were the only ones left in the room still conscious.

Jacob looked up from his clipboard. "Did great today, Helen, you really did! Here, here's your check. We'll give you a call next time we're shooting, okay? We'll look forward to seeing you, bye now!" Jacob had pushed Helen into the elevator and before she knew what happened, she was getting into a cab and headed home.

She looked at the check in her hand.

"Where ya headed?" the cab driver asked.

_With this much money, I could go to Mars._

**Voila! A bit different. Not entirely pleased with the photo shoot scene, but I like enough to leave it.**

**Review…?**

**(have you hugged your couch yet today?)**


	20. green eggs and ham

**Whop de doop! Hiya! Wow, chapter 20. This is major accomplishment. I'm still alive by chapter 20!**

…

**It isn't the same without pop tarts.**

Bob opened the door after the doorbell rang to find Dean standing on his front porch, holding up a cd.

"You need to see this."

Bob stepped out of the way to let Dean in. "What is it, Dean?"

Dean immediately headed for the computer. "The rodent… rat… robot thing! I hacked into the hard drive the other day (took me forever to find it), and saved everything onto this cd." Dean put the cd into the computer as Bob pulled a chair forward. He wasn't going to admit it, but he understood zilch of all the computer stuff Dean just said. Heck, Bob just had issues trying to get one to turn on.

Dean clicked on the cd icon that popped up on screen. From there a new window opened with three different icons on it. Dean clicked on the first one, and a video started to play. "This is a recording of everything the rat saw and heard from the time he woke up to the time he died." Then he clicked on the next icon. It was the programming, only now it didn't need translating, but as he scrolled through it, different maps and side boxes opened up that Dean had added in. Mostly it was stuff about the actual running of the rat, maybe something to send to NSA for a looking at.

"Here's where it gets weird," Dean said as they scrolled further down. He highlighted the strange part. To Bob, it all looked strange. But then one of Dean's interpretation boxes popped up, and Bob started reading.

_This part of the program refers to the 'Robot Rat's target. While most learning robots of this nature are designed for the simple task of destruction, this program differentiates from the norm. _(part of the 'weird' part highlighted, another addition on Dean's part) _ Here, the program refers to the 'Profiles' from a different part of the hard drive. This part of the program directs the robot as to the specific places it is to destroy, the specific persons it is to destroy, and how to get between these places undetected._

Bob leaned back in his chair. "What's so odd about that?"

"Mr. Inc, have you ever faced an enemy with some kind of super robot that targeted only certain people?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Most super villains build robots for one reason: power. And a super villain's favorite way to get power is fear. How do you make people afraid? You destroy everything in your way. Usually people aren't going to be that afraid if only a small part of the population is targeted by a robot. But they will learn to fear those people that are targeted."

"I don't understand, Dean. But what's that part about 'how to get places undetected?'"

"That's another thing. Most super villains with robots that are destroying stuff are pretty upfront about it. They want people to see them. But this thing is programmed like an assassin!"

Bob was thinking about the time he fought these things at the track meet and the movie theater. They certainly didn't act like assassins then.

"So what're these profiles?"

Dean moved the program window out of the way and clicked on the third icon. Two things happened. The computer started to hook up to the internet, and a window with a strange seal (not the animal) on it popped up. Dean clicked on the seal.

It was reliving Kronos, only worse.

When he clicked on the seal, the screen changed to a strange sort of menu with five pictures on it. One for every Incredible. Dean looked apologetically at Bob; he really did not want to do this. He clicked on the first one, Mr. Incredible. The screen changed again so that there was a picture on the left side and one on the right with a profile for each picture. The pictures were of Mr. Incredible and Robert Parr. The profiles gave a complete history of each; from weight and height to previous occupations to favorite color.

Dean exited this and clicked on Mrs. Incredible. She had three pictures, Helen Parr, Elastigirl, and Mrs. Incredible.

Bob slumped back in his chair.

Shadow was Violet. Rapid Fire was Dash. The Flare was Jack-Jack.

Dean turned to Bob. "Those are the profiles. The people the rat was targeting… Bob, there's more." Dean closed the profiles and clicked on the internet link. It was a simple white page with 'A message for the Incredibles' written on it. From the looks of it, the page was only accessible when this cd (or the original chip) was in the computer. A video started to play.

It was the Underminer. "Hello, Mr. Incredible. Or (chuckle) do you prefer Mr. Parr? It doesn't matter. I'm sure if anyone got a hold of my rat's hard drive, it was you. You probably got some punk kid to make sense of it all for you too!" The Underminer laughed harshly. "I wanted you to know, Mr. Incredible, you and your family are in quite a hole at the moment. I know everything about you all! I know about Buddy Pine and your misadventure at Nomanisan Island, I know about Elastigirl's recent offer to model for a home-decorating magazine, I know about all the powers the Flare has, I know about Rapid Fire's allergy to penicillin, I even know about Shadow's boyfriend. I even know your address!" A picture of their home popped up for a moment. "Face it, Mr. Incredible. Your stuck. Can't hardly pay your bills 'cause you can't get a decent job (must be embarrassing. You look for months and find nothing but a mailroom gig while all your wife has to do to get a first-class job is walk into a grocery store). The politicians in congress are against you. It's getting harder and harder to keep your identities a secret, isn't it? Well, obviously, you've gotten too careless! I know who you are!" The Underminer laughed again. "What do you think'll happen, Mr. Parr? Will I sell your 'profile' to the highest bidder on ebay? Will I drill my 'Mole' through your house? Will I kill your kids while they're at school? Will I create enough havoc to ruin the debates in D.C.? But I've got a better question." The Underminer walked up insanely close to the camera so that you could see his frightening eyes under his helmet. "Who sold you out?"

Bob felt like he'd been punched in the stomach.

The Underminer continued. "Ever felt betrayed, Parr? Ever felt like there was nothing you could do? Ever felt all alone? Ever felt like your world was crashing down around you, and there was nothing you could do? And then, even thought your world's ended, you have to keep going? Without your world?…"

A family picture they had taken about a year back by a professional photographer that Helen now had framed on her bedside table flashed onto the screen.

"…Good."

Dean exited all the cd windows.

Bob was rubbing his forehead, his mind swimming in God knows what. "He knows who we are…"

"Sorry, Mr. Inc," Dean said. He put the cd back in the case and handed it to Bob. "Here. You should probably keep it. Give it to some NSA guys." With that, Dean left the house.

_'Who sold you out? Ever felt betrayed, Parr? Ever felt all alone? Ever felt like your world was crashing down around you, and there was nothing you could do? …Good…'_

_What on earth did I ever do to this guy?_…

The next month passed by rather uneventfully. Bob decided early on not to mention to the kids that the Underminer knew who they were; no point in having them worry about waking up to a robot rat in their bedroom. He also settled into his job (plus his seventeen year old supervisor left, so he didn't have to put up with the punk anymore). Helen was also bringing home some bacon, and though it did kind of bother Bob that he wasn't enough support, he didn't mind. Violet and Tony "redid" their date; they went to a different theater to see the same movie, and this time the only action was in the film. They also went out to a coffee shop a few times, and Violet found it a great relief that Tony knew about her being a super. He was the first person she'd ever known that she could really talk to about her powers, while she did feel guilty about not telling anyone. Perhaps it was her confidence in him that made Tony able to confide in her as well. Dash wasn't as lucky. He was thoroughly depressed about being unable to run and participate in training (although the Underminer didn't pop up anywhere, so it didn't really matter). His leg was healing nicely, according to the doctor. At school, Dash got closer to both Mickey & his friends and Luke & his pals, and this alliance with both groups seemed to be causing quite a rift in the school community.

Meanwhile in politics, McCormick had recently proposed a law that would restrict supers' activities in public places to keep them from the "temptation" to do super actions. He was later hit by an egg while talking to the press…

He deserved it.

**You know, it's really hard to pretend you know what your talking about when it comes to computers and programming crap. Methinks I'm gonna avoid that from now on.**

**Review…?**


	21. Demon Car

**Okeydokey, normally, I run a strict do-not-answer-questions-from-reviews thing over here, but I couldn't resist Spindle Berry's last one. Uno, thank you for pointing out the spelling thing- I'd never have caught that. Two, the Mickey thing, well, he's a die-hard runner, and Dash/Rapid Fire (should of come up with a better name) is obviously the best runner around. Not to mention supers are really cool. Thus the fascination. And C, the "Invisible Fence" thing, either I had run out of pop-tarts and had to substitute Oreos, or I had been sitting there forever until I didn't care anymore. I don't remember anymore. **

**Of course, now I need you guys to answer a question for me since I broke custom here. I'm doing some "research" for another Incredibles fic to come, and I need to know about motorcycles (particularly more recent ones, like a Suzuki GSX-R). How they work and how to ride/drive one. And how to build one would help. Thank you.**

October! Dash and Vi had survived their first month back at school! What's more, Violet's birthday came and went, making her fifteen, making her eligible for her driver's permit. Which she got. Which is where we begin.

"Mom, what're you doing?" Dash asked from the backseat.

"I'm pulling into an empty parking lot."

"We can see that," Violet said. "Why?"

"I'm going to give you a driving lesson," Helen said, putting the rental in park. She got out of the car and circled over to Vi's door. Violet, however, did not budge.

Helen opened the passenger door. "Vi, you gotta get out of the car."

"Driving?" Vi asked, glancing at her mother from her perpetual stare out the windshield. "With you? Shouldn't we wait until, I… like… have my license already?"

"Please?" Dash added in.

"Nonsense," Helen said. "Get outta the car."

Slowly, Violet got out of the passenger seat and walked over to the driver's side, glancing often at her mother. She sat down behind the wheel.

"All right, now what's the first thing we do?" Helen asked her daughter.

"Pray?" Dash interjected.

"Hush. Vi?"

"Praying sounded pretty good, actually."

"Violet, try that again."

"Seatbelt?"

"Well, I was gonna say close the door, but seatbelt works, too."

Violet obeyed.

"Now what?" the teenager asked.

Dash motioned to his cast. "I already have one broken bone, don't break the rest of me!"

"If you're not careful you'll be goin home on those crutches of yours!"

"You two, stop fighting. Now Vi, check the review mirror. Can you see out of it?"

"I can't see around Dash's big head."

Dash stuck his tongue out.

"Enough! C'mon Vi, work with me."

Violet moved the mirror. "Now what?"

"Put the brake all the way down."

"Kay, now what?"

"Now you put the car into drive," Helen said, motioning to the stick-thing next to the steering wheel.

_I shoulda waited til Driver's Ed_, Vi thought, reaching for the stick and moving it until the dial below the fuel gage pointed at D instead of P.

"Now we pray!" Dash exclaimed.

"Enough Dash."

"What now?"

"You take your foot off the brake and put it on the accelerator," Helen commanded.

SCREECH, Errrk!

Vi had hit the accelerator a little too hard and then rammed back on the brake.

"It's okay!" Helen said, barely breathing herself. "It's okay!"

"You tellin' us or yourself?"

"Dash! Maybe I should have clarified," Helen said, turning towards her daughter. "_Gently_ put your foot on the accelerator."

"'Kay," Violet said, not taking her eye off the concrete for a second for fear it would start moving on her. Slowly she took her foot off the brake and pressed on the accelerator.

"There you go!" Helen praised. "You're going!"

"You call this going?" Dash asked. They were 'going' about five miles an hour.

"Be quiet, you legless bug!" Violet said without turning to look at Dash.

"No name calling. Now Vi, see if you can make this turn around that island up there," Helen ordered, pointing to one of those spots where a tiny tree was planted to make the parking lot look more 'natural.' **(A/N morons)**

Violet nodded and pressed on the accelerator a little harder so it wouldn't take so long to get to the island. But she immediately hit the brake when Helen grabbed the dashboard, screaming, "Stop-stop-stop-stop-STOP!"

"WHAT! What, what is it!"

"You were about to hit the tree!" Helen shouted, pointing out the window at the tree growing on the island.

"We're like a hundred feet away!" Violet shot back.

"Yeah, Mom, she only hit about ten mph."

"Hey, _you _can't go much faster, so shut up!"

"Only because my leg is out! If it wasn't I could be around that island twenty times in five seconds!"

"Stop yelling at each other!" Helen shouted. "C'mon Vi, let's try this again."

Violet drove to the island and started to turn around it.

"More," Helen said, speaking of the amount of turn Vi needed. "More, more, more-"

"It doesn't go anymore!" Violet shouted.

"Look out!"

The car went up over the side of the island.

"You didn't need to turn that much!"

"You said 'More!'"

"Not that much more!"

"You said more when there was none left!"

"Guys, you're still hitting the accelerator!" Dash shouted.

Violet and Helen both looked up and screamed as they realized they were about to drive into the street. Violet slammed once again on the brake and they all nearly went sailing through the windshield. Violet instinctually put a forcefield around the car.

"Okay Vi, turn around and we'll try the island again."

So Violet practiced driving around the parking lot for another ten minutes, with only one minor accident involving a squirrel with a death wish and a lost tire. Nothing too bad.

"Okay!" Helen said happily to her disheveled daughter (seriously, we're talking fingers stuck to the wheel, hair a mess, etc. Dash wasn't much better) "How bout you drive us home?"

"What!" the kids exclaimed in unison.

"Just pull onto the road. It's only a few blocks to our street, all on a straight road."

"Okay," Violet said, driving the car up to the road. _Don't blame me if we all end up dead._ She turned on the left blinker.

"Now look both ways before you go."

"I'm doing that."

"Okay, go now."

Violet pulled into the street and stopped the car for a stoplight. _I'm gonna drive us into a gas station and get us all blown up!_

"Okay, it's green, you can go."

_I know that_, Violet thought, mentally rolling her eyes as she started to pull forward. Then out of nowhere some speed demon on a Harley rocketed from the right, nearly smashing into Violet.

"What the crap!" Violet screamed, her foot slipping a little so the car sped up rather suddenly. But that wasn't the main problem. The main problem was that she'd been so startled by the speedster, she up and turned invisible. But apparently when the adrenaline kicks in a super can do some things new.

Violet gasped. "Mom, I can't see the car."

"Neither can I."

"Mom, I don't know where I'm driving."

"Just don't panic."

"And do what instead?" Dash asked.

If you'd seen it,… well, what a sight it would have been. Just a reddish-brown haired woman and a blonde-haired boy with a cast floating down the street. In fact, one guy dropped his Rolex in the sewer drain.

"Mom, I can't see the stinking car! What the heck is going on!"

"Oh this is not good!"

"Mooooom…"

"What is it, Dash?"

"What if there's a cop behind us?"

Helen slapped her forehead and held it in her hand.

Meanwhile the cop was deciding whether or not he was hallucinating. The nice thing about invisible cars is that no one can take down your license number.

"Mom, our turn's coming up and I can't see the car! What do I do?"

Helen started to reach over towards where she guess the steering wheel was… and hit the radio. BAM! Can we say ear-splitting-loud bagpipes and harmonicas with yodelers?

"What kind of a station is this?" Dash shouted over the music, his hands clasped over his ears.

"How'm I supposed to think?" Violet shouted.

"Go, go now, Vi!" Helen yelled, her ears also covered.

"I can't see the car!"

"Make the turn!"

"AAARRRR!" Violet screamed as she floored it, turning the wheel blindly and really hoping the car stayed on a road and didn't end up in a ditch or tree. Dash screamed as a car nearly slammed into them just as they got onto their street, swerving back and forth across the road. It seemed Violet was beyond taking her foot off the accelerator.

So there they were. An invisible car with two people 'floating' over the street going about eighty mph on an uphill with bagpipes and yodelers blasting and everyone in the car screaming.

"VIOLET!"

"SOMEONE TURN OFF THE DUMB RADIO!"

"THERE'S A SQUIRREL THERE!"

"WOULD SOMEONE ROLL UP THE WINDOWS!"

"TURN TURN TURN TURN!"

"IT DON'T TURN NO MORE!"

"TOO MUCH!"

"OPPOSUM!"

"LITTLE OLD MAN, DEAD AHEAD!"

"GET OUTTA THE WAY!"

"THERE'S THE HOUSE, TURN INTO THE DRIVEWAY!"

"HIT THE BRAKE!"

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!

Thank God for seatbelts.

Dash had the crutches between him and the front seats, pinned to the back seat. Helen was elasti-stretched everywhere, bracing against the dash with her feet, against the door with her neck, against the driver's seat with her arm, and against the roof with her other arm. Violet was glued to her spot and practically hyperventilating. She wasn't alone.

Bob, who _had _been watering the lawn while Jack-Jack played in a small sandbox, stared wide-eyed at the very strange sight.

Helen was the first to move. Slowly, she de-elasti-stretched herself, reached over and, finding Violet's fingers, helped the teen put the car in park and turn it off. Only then did she and the car become visible again.

"Okay," Helen said, her voice cracking a bit. "Who's going to help me put away the groceries?"

**Oh that was fun.**

**Review…?**


	22. Clubs and Closets

**Okay, so before I get seriously mangled, I know perfectly well that Violet couldn't have turned the car invisible the way she did last chapter. I just couldn't resist. So no worries, no more breaking laws of super-dom. But it was still muches fun! GIMME THAT POP-TART!**

Dash sighed loudly. _This is so boring_, he thought as he stifled a yawn. Then again, classes are required to be boring aren't they?

Dash glared down at his signature-laden cast. _Dumb piece of plaster._ The doctor had said he'd have it on another two or three weeks, and then he'd have to go through physical therapy or whatever Helen had called it. Joy. Dash would have given just about anything to burn the cast right then and there.

Ms. Niblack started passing out graded tests. _Whop de doo_. Dash got his. 96. _Big whop_, Dash thought. He folded the test up and put it in his pocket to discard later. Niblack then handed out a packet of math problems, Dash's least favorite subject. It was to be a 'partners' activity; Dash ended up pairing up with Luke (who had actually signed his cast twice).

Only three minutes into the assignment saw Dash gazing out the window, daydreaming longingly of catching the Underminer himself and throwing him into a ditch with one of those stupid rodent contraptions of his.

"What's up Dash?" Luke asked.

"Huh? What d'you mean?"

"That's like the fifth time you've sighed in the last sixty seconds."

"Life sucks you know that?"

"Little early to be talkin' like that, ain't it Dash? Gotta be at least thirteen before you can be all depressed and gloomy like that."

Dash whispered a smile.

"Bummed you can't run."

"Bingo."

"Yeah well, I'm bummed I don't get these math problems. Wanna give me a hand?"

Dash looked over at the shared paper. Twenty seconds later, the assignment was done and Dash and Luke had the last ten minutes given to the assignment to daydream. They weren't the only ones.

"Hey Dash," Mickey said, walking over next to the younger boy. He momentarily glared at Luke, who looked away glaring as well. "What'd the doc say?"

"Another two to three weeks."

"Ouch."

"He made it this far," Luke grumbled.

"You shut up," Mickey growled.

"Why don't you?" Luke growled back.

"Uh, how's, uh, your, um, sister?" Dash asked Mickey, desperate to stop a fight before it started.

"I don't have a sister."

"Bet she'd be ugly if you did," mumbled Luke.

"What'd you say!"

"Hey, guys, cool it!" Dash said.

"What, can't you hear, muskrat?" Luke asked Mickey, standing up casually.

"You better watch who you call a muskrat, you oversized peacock." Mickey stood up, making sure to use his height over Luke to his advantage.

"Peacock? What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Luke snarled, his voice raising in volume.

"Guys, cool it," Dash said coolly.

"That's what peacocks are you moron! Nothing but show, just like you!" Mickey yelled back.

"Oh well how 'bout I show you a world of hurt?" Luke shouted. The class was beginning to notice them, and Ms. Niblack was in the bathroom.

"Knock it off, guys!" Dash said loudly.

Luke suddenly swung out at Mickey, who ducked just in time. Now they had the classroom's attention.

"Fight!" someone shouted. "Fight!"

"You wanna dance, Skywalker?" Mickey mocked. "C'mon, hit me!" Mickey swung, and made contact with Luke's shoulder.

"Uh!"

"Stop it!" Alice shouted over the calls for violence from the classroom.

The tall twelve year olds started to hop around each other, hands up like boxers. Dash struggled to his feet on his crutches.

Luke growled as he hit Mickey, first in the chest then in the chin.

"Gah!" Mickey stumbled back a bit, but the little ring of sixth graders pushed him back in. The momentum helped Mickey send a good hit into Luke's gut.

"Awh!" Luke doubled over and Mickey seized the opportunity to knee him, also in the guts, then hit him in the head from above.

Dash started to push his way through the larger students towards the 'ring.' Dodger and Jim were working their way towards the fighters as well. Ernie seemed to be leading the cheering. It hadn't taken long for the class to divide into two different sections, one cheering for each boy.

"Arrrr!" Luke, still doubled over, charged into Mickey and they fell over. The two continued to grapple on the floor. The ring seemed to close around them. Luke had Mickey in a chokehold of sorts, and Mickey was hitting Luke in the face rather successfully.

"Hey, c'mere!" Ernie yelled as Jim pushed past him. The contagious anger of human beings had infected Ernie, and the boy uppercut Jimmy who fell into the ring where Ernie started stomping on him.

"Stop it, you're hurting him!" Alice yelled, shoving Ernie away from Jim. Well, Ernie shoved back, and Alice tripped over her own feet and knocked over another classmate.

Mickey and Luke had somehow gotten up on their feet again and the two had lost all sense of civil fighting (if you wanna call fighting civil at all), as they had both stooped to such attacks as biting, etc.

Finally Dash and Dodger were able to push trough the crowd.

"Enough!" Dodger yelled. Everyone seemed to become aware of themselves again but Mickey and Luke, who were still dying to kill each other.

Dodger and Dash moved in to hold the two back, and Jim started to stagger to his feet so he could help Dash.

"Knock it off, guys," Dodger said quietly as he put a hand on Mickey's shoulder a began to pull. Dash was forcing himself between the two with the aid of his crutches, pushing against Luke to get him to back away from the fight. But the boxers in training weren't going to stand for that.

Luke shoved Dash to the ground, screaming like an animal. The eleven-year-old hit his face against a desk and blood was suddenly present. It took Dash a second to realize it was his.

Mickey was also furious that his fight had been interrupted. He whirled around to face timid Dodger, hooked him right in the jaw, the proceeded to punch the living daylights out of the boy's stomach.

"Hey!" Jimmy shouted. _Where the heck is Ms. Niblack!_ The entire class reacted similarly upon seeing the shyest boy around getting the crap beat out of him by his idol. Which is why everyone moved in to stop Mickey, and keep Luke from kicking Dash's head off. And that's about the time Ms. Niblack walked in.

"Hm, you bring up a good point, Mr. Sandrews," Principal Polt of Dash's school was saying to a man with a press hat on.

"Of course I do, Principal Polt."

Principal Polt looked at the newsman suspiciously. "All right, I'll take care of it with the board, but the district will only tolerate a week of you goons snooping around, understand? And don't you dare start until I give you the okay, got it?"

"Clear as crystal, sir. Now, I'll be on my way so you can do your work. Good day, Principal Polt." Sandrews left the room. "Oh pardon me," he said as a woman who looked like a teacher there marched in a large group of boys.

"Principal Polt!" Ms. Niblack, sounding thoroughly outraged. "I am outraged!" **(A/N told ya so)**

"What seems to be the problem, Ms. Niblack?"

"These boys were fighting while I was out of the room!" she said.

Before him stood six boys: Jim, Ernie, Luke, Dodger, Mickey, and Dash. Principal looked them all over. They certainly looked as though they'd been in a brawl.

"All of them?"

"All of them were involved somehow, but their testimonies aren't exactly trustworthy so I don't know how they were involved."

"I see." Polt looked the sullen-faced boys over. "Boys, violence is not to be tolerated. You know that."

"Yes, sir," a chorus of boys responded.

Polt sighed. "All right. Ms. Niblack, you may return to the rest of your class for now, I'll talk with these gentlemen."

"With all due respect, they're hardly gentlemen," Ms. Niblack said as she left the principal's office.

"All right. Who wants to tell me the truth?"

No one spoke.

"Boys, I know you don't want to get in trouble, but you'll be in deeper if you don't tell me the truth."

The boys remained silent. Polt looked them over. Experience had taught him a thing or two about discerning guilty parties. So had two years in college learning to be a CSI, but obviously that plan fell through.

Neither Ernie or Jim were directly involved with the fight, that was for sure; neither one had nearly as many injuries. But all four of the other boys appeared fairly equally beat up.

That's when one boy hobbled forward a bit, straining on his crutches.

"I started it," Dash said quietly. All five other boys seemed to get shorter just then, but from their hung heads they each seemed to be staring at Dash.

"You, Dash?" Polt looked the boy over. Fat chance. This boy certainly looked the part and had the record, but his leg had him seriously restrained; he could never have caused the amount of damage on any of the other boys and have remained standing. Besides, his knuckles were clean.

"Yes, sir," Dash lied, and he suddenly wondered what the heck he was doing.

"I was the other one fighting, sir," Dodger said quietly, stepping forward too. "The other guys were just trying to stop us, sir." Dash chanced a surprised glance at Dodger. Who-da-thunk…

Polt felt very proud of the two boys standing in front of him. Neither one were the fighters, he knew. Fighters never turned themselves in when there was a chance they wouldn't get caught. Besides, both boys had clean knuckles. What's more, Dash wasn't the fighting kind; sure he was a prankster, but he'd never really harm someone else (except maybe Bernie). Dodger too was far too timid to be a fighter.

"What were you fighting about?"

"Uh…" Dodger and Dash said in unison. They glanced at each other.

"Boys, while I appreciate you're trying to help, you're only making Luke and Mickey here look worse."

The two volunteer scapegoats hung their heads rather low, embarrassed that their rescue mission had failed.

"Now why don't you tell me what really happened."

"We just started fighting," Luke said. "That's all. We just got angry."

"Angry?" Polt said, suddenly losing some control of his own temper. "If I'm correct, none of these other boys so much as threw a punch!"

Ernie shifted on his heels uncomfortably.

"And guessing from Niblack's behavior, I'd guess these four weren't the only ones harmed by this brawl of yours. You must have been pretty angry to attack each other and then the rest of the classroom! Mickey, Luke, to be frank I am sick of this! Either you two better figure something out or I don't know what I'll do!"

"Yes sir," Mickey said quietly. He felt lower than a brick, lower than a worm on a hook, more because he'd hit Dodger than because he'd fought with Luke.

"How'd these other four get so beat up, Luke?"

"Trying to stop us, sir."

"Trying to stop you? Well you have some pretty great friends if they're willing to have their faces knocked off on your accounts, then stand there and _try_ to take the fall for your actions."

Even though Dash knew Polt wasn't talking to him, standing closer to the principal's desk than everyone else made him feel targeted.

"Yes sir," Mickey whispered.

"Boys," Polt said, "head to the nurse's office and get cleaned up. Then come back here and tell it to me straight, got it? Mickey, Luke, you realize one more strike on both of you are out."

"Yes sir."

"Yes, sir."

"All right… go."

"You were in a fight?" Violet asked in disbelief that night after dinner. For the first time since… forever, Dash had come to Violet's room to confide in her instead of annoy her.

"It wasn't me, it was Luke and Mickey! I was just trying to stop 'em."

"Yeah well, either way your eye now matches my hair."

"What am I supposed to do? What on earth did these guys do to each other!"

"You're really stuck thinking on this, aren't you?"

"I nearly had my face blown off, of course I am."

"You nearly get your face blown off by me all the time," Violet said shrugging. "Or out there."

"Yeah, well out there or in here I'm expecting it. Not at school. Besides, out there I'm wearing a bulletproof scuba suit."

"So why do you hang out with these two again?"

"Because Luke likes jokes and does his homework too, and because Mickey's a great runner who likes the same music as me."

"Oh." Those were some pretty decent reasons, Vi had to admit. What she didn't get is how these two boys got so worked up after just a few words. "So why did they get so worked up over getting called some names?"

"Beats me."

"So why don't you ask one of their friends?"

"Behind their back?"

"Better than letting those two kill each other and get expelled from school."

"That's not gonna happen."

"Whatever. Need anything else, Twerp?"

"Yeah… how'm I gonna explain this to Mom 'n Dad?"

"Violet!" Helen shouted from downstairs. "Come change Jack-Jack's diaper while I finish doing the dishes!"

"Coming," Violet shouted back. She and Dash left the room. As Violet headed down the stairs, Dash went to the hallway phone…

"Hello?"

"Hey, is this Dodger? It's Dash."

"Oh hold on, this is Ginger, his sister," the person on the other side said. Dash could hear someone shouting for somebody else and the phone being handed off.

"Dash?"

"Hey Dodger."

"What's up?"

"The ceiling."

"Ha ha. Seriously dude."

"About today," Dash said into the phone. "What the heck is it with Mickey and Luke?"

There was a pause. "I really shouldn't say."

"Well you better tell me. I don't feel like havin' to play referee ever again."

"Yeah, well neither do I…" Dodger seemed to be debating whether or not he should tell Dash. "Mickey and Luke used to be best buddies until last school year. Luke was more into pranks and skateboards, and Mickey really liked running and stuff. So they just sorta didn't hang out as much. But then…"

Dash had a bad feeling about this pause.

"Maybe I shouldn't say."

"For pete's sake, Dodger!"

"All right, all right already! You remember that day when that jet-rocket thing with that robot attacked the city and the Incredibles stopped it?"

Dash had a flashback of fighting the Omnidroid on the streets. "Well enough."

"Well, right after that, Mickey made his Rapid Fire club, you know?"

Dash had another flashback of coming over to Mickey's house one day after school last month to find the room plastered with pictures of himself, not to mention all sorts of other memorabilia. The most awkward two hours of his life. The next day Jim had explained that Mickey, Dodger, Alice, and Jim himself made up the Rapid Fire club (although Mickey was by far the most involved).

"Yeah, I know about the club."

"Course he didn't name the club until the stupid media came up with a name for the guy."

"Dodger, what's the point?"

"Well, Mickey made the club and all… and didn't let Luke join."

This slightly confused Dash. "He wanted in?"

"Yeah, Luke used to like running, too."

"Oh. So why couldn't he join?"

"Because he didn't like… live for running the way we do, I guess. Also, I think Mickey didn't like the idea of having someone else being the possible president of the club."

"Oh."

"Well Luke got pissed."

"Okay."

"And locked Mickey in a broom closet at school."

Dash looked at the phone a second. "He locked him in a closet?" Dash asked, sounding as though he had no idea how this was relevant. He didn't.

"Mickey has claustrophobia."

Ah, the light is shed and things make sense. "Uh oh."

"Yeah…"

"Well, uh… thanks for clearing that up, Dodger. Later."

"Later."

Dash hung up. So Mickey didn't let Luke join his club, and then Luke locked the claustrophobic boy in three-by-four-foot closet. Dash it seemed had his work cut out for him.

**All right! A whole chapter of nothin' but Dash! A little different huh? Now what to do next time… hmmm… **

**Review…?**


	23. Definition of an emotional rollercoaster

**Wow. I keep making up random characters, and can't keep track of 'em. Crazy. **

**Now pass the chocolate syrup, my pop-tarts need a little.**

Bob watched Violet and Tony walk off nervously. It was almost November now, and nothing had been seen of the Underminer. It had taken some real work on Violet's part to convince him to let her go out with Tony at night, although she still didn't know the Underminer knew about… everything.

Dash's leg had finally healed enough for the cast to come off, but he was still not allowed to run or train until he was through with physical therapy. Not too happy about that.

"How do I look?" Violet asked Tony for the kanillionth time.

"You look fine, for goodness sake. They're just my parents."

"Easy for you to say."

"Don't worry about it. It'll be over in an hour. Just eat some dinner, laugh at a few lame jokes, then you can go home."

"Yeah."

"I promise, it'll be a breeze. Here we are." Tony led Violet up the sidewalk of his home to the front door. As Violet looked through the night, she came to the conclusion that the Rydingers had much moolah.

"Thank you for having me over this evening," Violet said carefully, sitting at the Rydingers' dinner table later that evening.

"Not at all, dear," Mrs. Rydinger said as she passed the potatoes to her son. "It's a pleasure to meet you. Tony's been telling us loads about you." Mrs. Rydinger took the paper Mr. Rydinger was reading, rolled it up, and slapped him over the head with it.

Both Tony and Violet turned red at his mother's comment. Not only was Violet embarrassed, but a little panicked. _Oh please don't tell me he told them…_

"(ahem), yes," Mr. Rydinger said. He looked as though he wanted to be doing this about as much as Violet or Tony did. In fact, Mrs. Rydinger was the only one who seemed thrilled about having Vi over for dinner. Three guesses who came up with the idea in the first place.

Violet took a bite of the green bean salad. _Don't you dare puke!_ She swallowed. "Delicious."

"Thank you, dear."

"Mom, Dad cooked the meal."

"I cooked the green beans!"

"All right all right all right!"

Mr. Rydinger peeked back at the paper. Whap!

"So, uh," Mr. Rydinger said as he rubbed his head and glanced at his wife. "What do you think about the 'supers' issue, Violet?"

"Daaad," Tony said through gritted teeth, glaring at his father. _Please don't._

"What do you mean, Mr. Rydinger?"

"I take it you don't like to follow politics much."

"I find politics a little depressing to be honest."

"Well, how about I fill you in without depressing you?" Mr. Rydinger suggested. Violet didn't want to stop a conversation that could be a welcoming, so she nodded. Tony mentally beat himself up.

"I take it you've heard of McCormick?"

She most certainly had. "Yes."

"Then I'm sure you've heard of some his brilliant proposals," Mrs. Rydinger said with a smile.

"I beg your pardon?" Violet felt a little confused.

"As I'm sure you know, this entire country has been sent into a 'supers' frenzy. People treat them like celebrities. It's really quite ridiculous," Mr. Rydinger said.

Tony felt like being true to the freshman class principal's assumptions and shooting himself.

"Supers and their antics are the last thing this country needs. Especially with our economy. They make more money than teachers, which is about as awful as the athletes who do nothing but sit on the sidelines and get paid a million bucks to do so. They take up jobs with their 'secret identities' that someone without another source of income could use. They damage public property, 'super villains' are always where supers are, and God knows what's going on in their heads. For all we know, supers could be plotting the destruction of 'normals,' like in that X-Men movie. Heck, that Underminer freak nearly got you and Tony and dozens of others killed chasing after the Incredibles! Some people in that theater _were _killed! You two should consider yourselves lucky. And when supers are hidden in their 'secret identities!' What if they have the power to, oh I don't know, catch fire or something, and then they sneeze in a national forest!"

"He's right," Mrs. Rydinger said. "I mean, last spring when that robot thing attacked; tons of money was lost trying to repair the damage caused by the fight between that thing and the Incredibles. Don't get me wrong, we all appreciate the supers' wanting to help, and the Incredibles did do a good job of destroying the robot. However, people were still killed or injured in that fight. And, after the supers and their villains start destroying more property, people will realize that during the fifteen years that supers were 'banned,' so to speak, there were no 'super villains.' At least not in our country."

"Exactly," Mr. Rydinger said, smiling at his wife.

Violet was stunned… And Tony was wondering if they had any cyanide pills in the medicine cabinet.

She went on with the last half hour before she went home politely, but the Rydingers noticed a change in her. Mrs. Rydinger insisted it was something she'd eaten that her husband had cooked up, but Tony would just shoot back if it was something she ate, it would definitely have been the green beans.

When it was over, Violet marched away from the house, Tony hot on her heels.

"Vi, c'mon, say something!"

"Something."

"Vi!"

Violet continued marching. Personally, she was very proud she hadn't had an episode inside that house, proud she had actually remained polite and kind in _that_ _house_, and she didn't feel like having Tony screw it up now.

"Violet," Tony said, finally catching up to her. "C'mon, let me walk you home."

"Technically, you are."

"Violet, come on!"

"You could have told me, you know."

"Yeah, I know. Look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you they were for McCormick! I'm sorry they're republicans!" **(A/N hahaha! Sorry, I'm a democrat. If you're a republican, feel free to mentally change that to 'they're democrats' if you like)** "I'm sorry the green beans tasted nasty!"

"Oh, don't remind me about those green beans."

"They were somethin' awful weren't they?"

"Yeah," Violet said.

"Vi… the reason they're like that… My dad's brother got killed when they were kids because… a super was trying to save the larger crowd from a villain instead of the few kids that were trapped in a car that had fallen into a river."

Violet felt something close to shame after that. "Tony… are _you_ 'for McCormick?'"

"Well… I used to be, I guess. It's just… before, well you know, I didn't really think of supers that way."

"What way?"

"Like someone I knew. Like someone from school. Like someone who might be living across the street and have trouble downing green beans just like me. Like someone whose… just… normal."

Violet laughed at that.

"Well not normal, just not… as super as the rest of us think you guys are. I always thought of supers as gorgeous people in flashy suits smiling at a cop as they handed in a new creep," Tony said, trying to redeem himself.

Violet laughed again. "You have an odd imagination."

"Gee, thanks," Tony said sarcastically.

"Look, Tony… I'm not mad just because your parents like some weird congress dude… that should be taken out into a street and shot."

Tony laughed.

"I'm just kinda… I don't know. I mean… in a way, they're right!"

"Hey, none of that."

"I'm serious! We put people in a lot of danger!"

"Knock it off. You guys keep people from getting hurt. It's not your fault you can't save everyone."

"Oh shut up."

"I don't feel like it."

"Well I said so."

"Go home."

"I am home," Violet said, pointing over her shoulder. Sure enough, they'd walked all the way back to Vi's house. Bob was sitting on the front porch, waiting.

"Well, goodnight," Vi said to Tony as she turned to cross the street to her house.

"Hey Vi," Tony said, turning her around to face him again. "Uh… I mean… D-don't… I mean, you guys, supers, you are doing the right thing. You might not be able to save everyone, but you try, a-and you do keep tons more people from getting killed or hurt or whatever. Just don't believe that junk with McCormick."

Vi smiled. "Thanks."

"Uh…" Tony still faced her like he wanted to say something. Violet watched him as he fought an inward conflict, debated whether or not to actually say something or not. Finally, he decided.

Tony kissed Violet.

"Night, Vi." With that, Tony hunched off back towards his house and although Violet couldn't see it, he was beet red in the face. _Tony, old boy,_ he thought with a sigh,_ you've been tamed._

Violet must have stood there staring after Tony for a zillion years. When she couldn't see him through the darkness anymore, she finally moved. And boy, did she _move_. Squealing like a squirrel on caffeine, Violet hopped/skipped/something-ed across the street and down her sidewalk, a huge smile plastered to her face.

When Bob saw his daughter coming, he stood up. When Violet had hopped up onto the porch, she then hopped right into a hug with her father, giggling/squealing like a nutcase.

Bob was slightly befuggled. **(A/N remember that word?)** "Went well?"

"NOT AT ALL!" Violet said loudly, still smiling like a maniac. She then detached from her father and hopped on inside. And all over the house.

"Mom, Vi's lost her mind!" Dash shouted as he stared at his sister, jumping clear over the couch he lay on.

"AND DARN PROUD OF IT!" Violet yelled. Dash continued to stare for a moment. For a family that's used to completely crazy situations, they certainly were knocked outta balance by the more ordinary crazy moments in life.

Violet then hopped through the kitchen where Helen was, yelling happily "THAT WAS THE WORST DATE EVER!"

Bob walked into the kitchen just as Violet de bunny hopped out. "For a terrible date, she certainly seems happy."

"Yeah, well, boys have a tendency to have that effect."

Bob sort of slouched at that. He was still a little uncomfortable with the idea of his daughter dating. "Well, he better just be careful."

"We know, honey."

School the next day quickly killed Violet's good mood. Math at 7:30 equals booooooooooooorriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing! What really sucked is that their normal room was being sprayed for bugs or something, so Vi had to go on a wild goose chase around the school looking for her class. They were now in the health room on the first floor. Joy.

Violet looked down at the worksheets in front of her. _Burn… must kill…_ Violet wished like nothing else they were a pillow instead. _God, I want sleep_. Violet leaned her head against the window next to her desk. Somewhere in the back of her mind she could still hear the teacher. It was like the hum of a fly. _Oh, just shut up!_ she thought. But then, something caught her eye outside. A van. No, two. Three. On the side of the vans were the local newspaper's logo.

_What on earth…?_ Violet didn't like the looks of this somehow. She raised her hand and asked to go to the nurse. But she had no intention whatsoever to visit the nurse.

Violet walked around the halls for a little while, unsure of what she was looking for exactly. That's when she remembered something. When Helen and she had visited Edna "Creepy" Mode, E had made supersuits for them along with some everyday clothes that worked with their powers as well- and Violet just happened to be wearing the jeans and t-shirt that would turn invisible with her at that very moment.

_Oh, God is good,_ Violet thought. She walked into a girl's bathroom, and when she walked out, no one could see her at all. She decided to walk to the principals' offices. If anyone knew why there were press vans in the school's front drive, one of the class principals would.

Meanwhile at the elementary school, there was an assembly being held. The kids filed into the gymnasium (they didn't have an auditorium or anything of the sort) lazily, wishing they were back in bed. Or at least back making paper airplanes in class.

"Testing, testing. Ah, there we go," Principal Polt said into his microphone. "All right everyone, settle down, settle down… there we go. Now, as I'm sure some of you have noticed, there have been some people hanging around the school today."

"Only on a Monday," Dash whispered to Alice. He waved to Todd, his friend from the grade he was _supposed_ to be in. Todd waved back.

"Well, I just want everyone to know that these men and women work for the Metroville Tribune, and they are working on a story having to do with supers."

_Uh oh._

"Don't worry, they're just going to be here for one week before moving onto another school district. I've been told they will not interfere with any classes. Now, Mr. Prattville's kindergarten class has a skit to perform."

Violet couldn't believe what she was overhearing the head principal and press whacko talking about. A city-wide search? For young supers? In school? Things have changed in the last fifteen years? Violet suddenly felt sick. Worse than green bean sick. She ran out of the office as quickly as possible, turned visible in a girl's bathroom, then went straight to the nurse. She needed the nurse now. She felt like puking. Like cutting off her ears. She didn't buy it. Why would the press choose this district for the first week of searching? No, it couldn't, it just couldn't be a coincidence. Laying on the nurse's office cot, Violet fought with all her might against a thought she dared not think. **(A/N because THAT made sense) **But it was no use. No super would do this, and neither would a 'normal' like Honey Best who was married to a super or something. No, there was only one person she could think of that would go out and blab like this, even if it didn't make sense. God, it sucked admitting it.

Tony.

**POW! That was fun. I am so evil to the Incredibles. They're gonna need to go to the Bahamas or something once I'm done with 'em.**

**Review…?**


	24. Time to break out the kung fu!

**Ahhhh, Good Charlotte. Good music! I am soooo hungry! I want pop-tarts! But anyways, wazzup folksies? Personally, I got an air duct hangin' over my head. Oh, and a hole in the ceiling. That might explain why this room tends to have a lot of bugs in it. That might be too much information. Oh, before I forget, thanks much for ze reviews! Zey are a lot appreciated! (hugs all reviewers) Yay, broke 80!**

Vi only stayed in the nurse's office for about ten minutes. The nausea didn't last that long, and it gave way to a feeling Violet wasn't familiar with when Dash wasn't around. Anger. Oh, she was SO angry. And she was going to make it known, by golly.

The bell rang as soon as she returned to her math class for her stuff. She grabbed it and marched to the door.

"Vi?" Sarah asked catching up to Violet. "Don't you usually go the other way to your English class?"

"Yes, but we were in a different classroom today during first hour, so I have to go in a different direction."

"Uh-huh… that so."

"Yep."

"Then why did you just pass by the classroom?"

"I'll see ya at lunch, Sarah."

"Whatever."

Violet was not going to English today. She was going to a science class. A science class where a Mr. Rydinger had class next. And she was going to give that boy a piece of her mind, no doubt about it.

Vi was about to go up a set of stairs when she noticed a woman with a press hat there, watching the students pass her by. Violet decided to go up a different set of stairs. Besides, her locker was on the way to the next stairwell.

Violet dumped her stuff in her locker and stormed towards the next stairwell just as the bell rang.

Tony was sitting half asleep in his Biology class. They were learning about cell structure and DNA or something like that. Boring, boring, boring.

"Wake me up if he calls on me," Tony said to his lab partner.

"Zzzzzz," was Brad's response. **(A/N see? There I go again, making a character I'll never remember!)**

Tony lay his head on the lab table. _Why can't this teacher just shut up?_ The teacher was talking rather drearily, and the rain outside was not helping the atmosphere. Actually, if the teacher had looked up long enough, he would've realized only about five students were actually paying attention.

Tony heard Brad sit up about the same time he heard the door open and slam shut and the teacher shut up. He was about to look up when he felt something tugging at his ear.

"What? Hey!" he protested sleepily as he was pulled out of the classroom. He couldn't see who was dragging him by the ear, but he was definitely awake enough now to realize he was just taken out of class. "What the heck are you trying to do? Who is this? What the crap-!" Tony was yelling as he was half-thrown, half-shoved into a classroom.

Violet glared down at the boy on the floor trying to stand up. Tony stood up slowly and brushed himself off.

"What the heck is in your head, I've got class to go to! You better- oh!" Tony finally looked up. "Violet? What… w-what're you doing? Class…" Tony was getting a feeling that Vi was not happy, mostly from how she was looking at him. "Uh, Vi? You okay?"

Violet wasn't all that experienced with being excessively angry, so we was struggling with how to voice her anger. For a moment she just opened and closed her mouth like a fish as she searched her vocabulary for a fitting statement.

"You… you… you jerk!"

"Huh?"

"You stupid, lying jerk!" Violet shouted, loud enough for the students in the room below them to hear.

"See? Told ya the school's haunted," a senior said.

"I hate it when you're right," the student next to him said, looking up at the ceiling.

"You… I don't believe you!" Violet shouted.

"What'd I do?" Tony yelled.

"What'd you do! Did you honestly think I wouldn't find out! That I'd just go on like normal and not notice these creeps hanging around the school?"

"If you're talking about the soccer team, I-"

"I'm not talking about the freaking soccer team!"

"Vi, what're you talking about?" Tony shouted back. His anger was also mounting.

"The stinking press that's what I'm talking about!"

Tony's brow furrowed.

Violet lowered her voice, just in case anyone could hear. "I don't believe you! I don't… I… How could you, you jerk! I stinking trusted you!"

"Vi, the press thing was announced a week ago."

Violet did not want to hear that. Obviously, she hadn't gotten the memo. "A week ago? Errrrr! You jerk!"

Tony just stood there, staring at Violet.

"Why the heck did you… Do you know how much trouble I'd get in if anyone found out you still remembered all that theater stuff? Do you know how much trouble I'd be in if someone found out you knew all the stuff I've told you about supers? Not only would my parents kill me, but the whole freaking NSA would practically hang me by my toes! I trusted you, you jerk! I put every stupid super in the country on the line 'cause I didn't want you to get in trouble and crap!"

Tony just glared back at her. "Are you done yet?"

Oh, that smoothed it over. Violet glowered at him. Then kicked him in the shin.

"OW!"

"Yes, I am done." Violet smiled, and shoved Tony out into the hall. She spent the rest of second hour in the empty classroom, grumbling.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow!" Tony grimaced, hopping on his good leg while holding his damaged shin. "What de heck is women all the stupid crummy people gotta kick me in the leg kermer shny fogun-"

"Well, Mr. Rydinger, what are you doing out here in the halls during class? You wouldn't be trying to commit suicide would you?"

Oh, you know who was standing behind Tony.

_You gotta be kidding me..._

Violet wasn't the only one having a bad day. Unfortunately. Bob was not doing so hot either. Or at least he wasn't going to. Robert Parr stood at the water cooler, stretching a bit before returning to his mail cell, when he noticed a small group of workers nearby. They seemed inviting enough, so he walked over next to them and hung back a little.

"Tania, you're such a kidder!" a woman was saying.

"Hey, if you'd seen it, you would have agreed with her!" a man said.

"Oh Tom, knock it off," a larger man said as he took a sip of coffee.

Bob looked at his watch. _Oh forget it, better get back to work_, he thought remembering how his new supervisor checked up on him every twenty minutes with new mail to sort. But as he walked away, he overheard someone in the group say something he did not like.

"No, I'm telling you, I do the best Rapid Fire impersonation!" Tom said.

Bob froze. Slowly he turned back to look at the group of four. The man named Tom was running crazily in place. It was obvious he was impersonating Dash as being plume crazy. The other three stifled laughs.

"Look at me!" he cried. "Look at me! Oh, check out this one. Shadow!"

Bob felt a bad feeling stir in his gut as he took a step towards Tom.

Tom sucked in all his gut and sort of curled around himself. "AAAAAAAAA! AAAAAAA! I'm so afraid, someone save me!"

Bob took another step towards the man. The four were trying to contain their chuckles.

"How about this?" Tom started to act dumb. "Duuuuuh, I'm Mister Incredible, duuuuuuuur. Watch me pump up," Tom said as he pretended to drool. "What about this?" he said as he started to act like some twenty-something female model that thought too much of herself. "Oh! I'm Elastigirl! I'm married now, but I'm still a -"

The rest is pretty much a given. Tom ended up out cold and most likely in a hospital, and Mr. Incredible was fired on the spot (even though he was yelling over his employer's shouts 'I quit!')

Needless to say, as Bob was storming out of the building briefcase in hand, he came to the realization that he had just seriously screwed himself 5 million feet into the ground.

**Not my best. Then again, haven't had any pop-tarts today. I do have a serious addiction to water though. I should get treatment for that. Addiction to water must be very dangerous to your health!**

**Review…?**


	25. Father knows best

**Warning: super long chapter ahead. Plus I'm runnin on way not enough sleep, so who's tellin' what junk I'm gonna dish out. MANIA! Whoa, where'd that come from?**

"Men are such jerks!" This outburst was accompanied by the sound of a slammed door.

Bob looked up over his Metroville Tribune slightly surprised at his daughter, who had proceeded to slam her school bag onto the kitchen table. He furrowed his brow and looked at his watch.

"School doesn't let out for another three hours."

"Too bad."

"… " Bob had a bad feeling about this one.

"Aren't you usually at work around now?" Violet asked temporarily forgetting her anger.

"Uh, yes, but only you and I know that."

"Where's Mom?"

Bob pointed to a note on the microwave. Violet glanced at it. 'Got a call from West Living, should be back before school lets out. Honestly, I don't know why I'm leaving a note.' The phone number to the building she'd be at was there also.

"Jack-Jack?"

"With her, she didn't know I'd… we'd be home." Bob looked questioningly at Violet. She'd never skipped school, unless you counted the times she'd played sick. If those counted, that statistic shot up a bit.

"Am I in trouble?"

"Depends. Wanna talk about it?"

"No!" Violet half-shouted. Definitely not. She'd rather bite off her own tongue. Well, maybe that was a slight exaggeration.

"Then I can't promise you'll stay out of trouble," Bob said, taking one last glance at the classifieds before folding the Tribune up again. Violet momentarily glared at the paper.

"You're gonna tell Mom, aren't you?"

"It's not like I have a choice," Bob said. He stood up. "Hey, c'mere," he said as he walked down a hall to his and Helen's bedroom. Violet followed. Her father was shuffling about some items in the hall closet, until he finally produced two old baseball gloves and a baseball. "Wanna play catch?"

"Not really."

"Great. C'mon," Bob said smiling at his daughter as he walked to the back door, Violet following right behind him.

"Will it help," Bob was saying outside in the backward, facing Violet as he prepared to throw the ball. They'd been playing catch for about half an hour. "Will it help if I tell you why I'm home early?"

Violet just shrugged and caught the ball. She shook her catching hand off a little before tossing it back.

"I got fired." Bob threw the ball a little harder and Violet let out a grunt as she caught it.

"Again?" she asked rather casually.

"Yeah."

"What do you _do_ at work?"

Bob chuckled. He and Vi rarely had father-daughter time.

"I have a defense," he said. "I was provoked."

"You were fighting? Dad, c'mon, grow up!"

Bob chuckled again and Vi eased up a little. Her hand was numb. She wasn't letting on, but Bob was throwing that ball a lot harder than it seemed.

"What'd they do?"

"They were making fun of a certain family of supers," Bob said hesitantly.

Violet paused a second before she threw the ball, and when she did, Bob felt the anger with a hint of hurt. "Oh."

"When was the last time we played catch, Vi?"

Violet just shrugged.

"Have we _ever_ played catch?"

Violet thought a second then shrugged. Teenagers.

"Hey Dad?"

"Yeah Vi?"

"Why are men such jerks?" Violet threw the ball like a major league pitcher after that statement.

Bob caught the ball and this time _he _had to shake out his wrist.

"Well, that's a uh (yeow) interesting question, Vi." _Ow…_

"I mean, why are they such lying, boorish… mmmmmmagots."

Bob felt a little bit of compassion for the fellow who was feeling this heat.

"I take it this is part of the reason you're home early, huh?"

"Yeah…"

"You sure you don't want to talk about it?"

"… "

Bob waited to toss the ball.

"Can I kind of tell you?" Violet asked. During the period in which she had basically lied to her parents about Tony remembering they were supers, guilt had grown in her. And although she knew she couldn't- and wouldn't- tell her father everything, in the wake of Tony's deceit Violet needed to release some of the stress.

Bob shrugged. Grown-ups.

"You know that guy I was dating?"

"Tony Rydinger, lives on Maple Street, is 5' 5," and has blood type AB positive."

"Daaad!" Violet threw the ball playfully at Bob's skull.

Bob chuckled a little. "Okay, I lied about blood type."

"Well he's a jerk."

Bob remembered that Violet had just been on a date with the jerk last night and had returned acting like she could fly if she chose to.

"I'm afraid I don't follow."

Violet set her jaw as she caught the ball. "He's a bit of a liar," she mumbled frustrated.

"A bit meaning a whole lot?"

Violet shrugged.

"That's what I thought."

"I'm going to have some serious trouble because of him."

"You mean other than your mother when she finds out you skipped school?"

Violet grinned.

"What'd he do?"

Vi hesitated. How do you say something without actually saying it…? "He told a secret," she mumbled. Actually 'grumbled' is probably a better description.

"To the wrong people, I suppose."

Vi nodded slightly.

Bob threw the ball.

"Ow!" Violet exclaimed when she caught the ball.

"Sorry!"

"I'm fine!" Violet said. She grabbed the dropped ball in her other hand and tossed it before returning to massaging her catching hand.

"Maybe we should call it quits for now," Bob said as he took off his glove. Violet took off hers, too. Both father and daughter sort of stared at the highly bruised hand that had been in Vi's glove.

"Yeah, maybe," Vi agreed.

They walked back inside and Violet for a reason she couldn't really explain felt a little better.

Bob closed the door behind them and the force broke a window nearby. "Hm."

"Good job, Dad."

Violet left for her bedroom while Bob headed towards the garage where the Incredicar was (don't worry, it was morphed into normal mode). Another trip to the hardware store.

On the way to the door he noticed the morning paper and a small article on the front page. He glanced in Vi's direction and read the first few sentences. The title read "Super is arrested," by associated press. A kid, only sixteen, in Arkansas was arrested for breaking the super restrictions and trying to help out at a bank robbery. On his way out to the car, Bob threw the paper away.

"Daaaaaaaaaaaad?" Dash called later that night before dinner. Bob was finishing changing Jack-Jack's diaper.

"I'm in here!" he shouted. Within about 0.003 seconds Dash was standing next to him. "Hey, what'd the doctor say about running around on that leg?"

"Hey, the plaster's off!"

"All right, all right," Bob said as he carried Jack-Jack to his playpen in the living room/den/whatever you wanna call it. "What's up?"

"Dad, I got a question."

Bob put the baby in the playpen. Jack-Jack giggled as he played with the stuffed animals that kept falling out of his 'rain' storms. "Yeah?"

"Yeah, um…" Dash looked down at something in his hand that Bob couldn't see. "Um…"

Bob sat down in a chair.

Dash held the item out in front of Bob's face. "I'm a PEZ dispenser!"

Bob looked at the candy toy thing in front of his face. Dash wasn't kidding. "Uh…"

"A friend of mine gave it to me," Dash explained, looking a little weirded out by the idea the people were, well… eating out of his head.

"Uh… okay," Bob said. He was waiting for this information to be presented in the form of a question that he could answer.

"And that's not it."

"Uh oh."

"I mean, this friend of mine, he's got all this stuff…"

"Uh-huh…?"

"And it all has my face on it."

"Okay…"

"Except it's not just him. There's like… a me-club. Except as Rapid Fire."

"Yeah…"

"And they asked me to join."

Bob could see where he was going with this. He could still remember the first time he himself had to deal with this conundrum.

"So you want to know how to uh… uh…"

"Yeah," Dash said, nodding very very quickly.

Bob wondered absently how it was that all supers understood this problem without actually being able to put it into words.

"How am I supposed to be Dash when… when I'm… I mean, I'm-"

"Dash, don't worry about it."

"Huh?"

"All supers have to deal with this at one point or another."

"Dad, what exactly is 'it?'"

"Uh… no one really knows. But it's just a part of being a super hero."

"Really?"

"Yeah! Heck, I'm still not used to it."

This didn't seem to comfort Dash much.

"Look, with time it'll be easier to handle, but don't let it bother you, okay?"

"Okay…" Dash didn't look exactly comfortable with this response. He had been hoping for something a bit more like 'do this this and this, and you'll be fine.'

"Here Dash, let me tell you a story."

"Dad, I'm eleven. I don't need a bedtime story."

"I'm serious, listen."

Dash just rolled his eyes and sat down in front of his father. Bob could already smell the teenager growing in him, waiting to strike at thirteen.

"When I was about twenty… twenty-one, I think, I was working at a rather large company under a high-to-do fellow as a way of paying for college. Well, one day the building caught fire and the CEO got stuck in there."

_Uh oh_.

"So I suited up, went up there, and got him out of there."

"What does this have to do with me?"

"I'm getting there. Well, the CEO decided to award me, Mr. Incredible, for what I did, invited me to a ceremony, and asked that high-to-do fellow to prepare a speech of thanks for me. However, he was going to be out of town and asked me, the kid who did his chores, to do it for him."

"Really?"

Bob nodded.

"What'd you do?"

Bob chuckled. "I must have wondered what to do forever…"

Dash waited impatiently.

"Oh, uh, well, heh-heh, I told my roommate I had a big test to remake and we dressed him up like me to give the speech instead."

"And it worked!"

"Well, well-enough. Luckily I was low enough on the company totem pole so that no one really noticed the difference. But my roommate was less than pleased."

"Hey Dad…"

"Yeah Son?"

"How come whenever we're suited up, no one we know recognizes our voices?"

"That's a very good question. I don't have an answer. Any more questions?"

"Probably," Dash said as he stood up and started walking towards the kitchen. "But Mom called us to dinner half-way through our story so I don't think I should ask right now."

_Uh oh._

As you might have guessed, Helen was a little peeved that Dash and Bob (and technically Jack-Jack) had taken so long to get to the table. She also had found out Violet had skipped school, so the teenager of the house was grounded for the next two weeks. Violet didn't complain. It sure beat what would happen if Helen found out about the Tony problem. Furthermore, Helen was being a little hostile towards Bob after finding out he'd been fired (she didn't know _why_ he was fired of course). But something told the Parrs that something else had Helen a upset; she just seemed to be in a bad mood…

**(A/N you know that older song that goes something like 'gonna get ya, gonna get ya,' etc? Listening to that or 'bad boys, bad boys, what ya gonna do when they come for you' or something like those would probably be good for the next scene)**

The next few days were a nightmare for Dash and Vi. They felt like they were in some kind of guerilla war or hunt where the press people hanging out at the schools were the ones with the guns. Dash even showed up one day in full camouflage garb.

"Uh, interesting outfit, Dash," Jimmy said.

"Be quiet."

The starting bell hadn't sounded yet, so the students in Ms. Niblack's class were locked out of the classroom until she came running in (usually into her desk).

"Hey Dash," Mickey said. Both he and Luke had been severely punished for fighting- suspension, detention, the works- and both boys had finally finished all their little chores associated with that. "You choose an instrument yet?"

"Huh?"

"The assembly yesterday, they were talking about the music program. All sixth graders gotta take up an instrument now. Helps get money from the state, I think," Dodger said.

"Oh yeah." Dash thought a moment. He hadn't really been paying attention after the announcement dealing with the press. "I'll choose something later."

"Hey, before I forget," Mickey said, "you decide if you wanna join the Rapid Fire club?"

Before he knew what hit him, Mickey had been barreled over by one of the press creeps with a notepad and big glasses.

"What the-!" Mickey shouted as he got on his hands and knees to start climbing up.

"Who mentioned Rapid Fire, may I ask?" the man asked loudly.

"That would be the guy who's back you just broke," Alice grumbled. She wasn't much of a morning person.

"Oh well, allow me!" the man said as he flipped Mickey over and pulled the boy up next to him.

"What're you-!"

"What's your name fella? You mentioned a club, I believe? Where ya from? Got any siblings? A sister? Baby brother? Your father blond?"

The guy was driving Mickey nuts: poking him with his pencil, shoved his hat on Mickey's head, and generally treating him like a four year old. Plus, he was slowly pushing Mickey into a corner, and that was a feeling the boy did NOT like.

"Would you just-!"

"_He's_ not Rapid Fire!"

The newspaper reporter looked over at Dodger. "Why not?"

"He's not blond," Ernie said from behind the press guy, making the adult jump right outta his skin. Way to go, Ernie!

The reporter did a double take of Mickey. "Hmm… he could dye his hair."

"I'm not Rapid Fire!" Mickey shouted.

"He's too tall, anyways," Luke said quietly, but loud enough for the reporter to hear. The reporter looked from Luke to Mickey.

_Oh please, just go away!_ Dash thought. _Just let the bell ring and go away!_

"Hey, you're right!" the reporter exclaimed.

Mickey felt like spitting in his face. "Plus I don't have a sister or baby brother, and my father isn't blond!"

"Ahhh, yes I see this now," the reporter said. "But then there's always the chance that the Incredibles aren't actually related."

Just about everyone present slapped their foreheads.

"Get out!" Alice shouted.

The reporter pretended not to hear her.

"Here," he grunted to Mickey. "Have a sucker." When he turned his back, Ernie took the sucker and two of his buddies had to keep him from throwing it at the back of the reporter's head.

"What about you?" the man said, moving on to Jimmy. Jimmy glared at him. "Okay, no." He stepped next to Dodger. "You have blond hair."

"I noticed," Dodger yawned.

"Got a sister?"

"Yeah."

"How old?"

"Sixteen."

Everyone in the hall could see where this was going except Dodger, who was too sleepy to see what the reporter was up to now.

"Your father? Does he have blond hair?"

"Yep," Dodger yawned again, but froze in mid-yawn, realizing he just made a big mistake.

The reporter was jotting down notes.

"W-what're you doing?" Dodger asked.

"You run a lot? A member of that Rapid Fire club? How tall are you about?"

"Hey…I-I'm n-not Rapid Fire! W-what're you doing?"

"Hey dude, leave Dodger alone."

"Dodger your name, huh? How about your sister? She go to this district, too? Got a baby brother? What color's your mother's hair?"

Dodger looked about ready to panic, and even some of the other students were looking at him curiously. The reporter continued to jot down notes.

"I'll be right back," Dash said unheard by much of anyone as he jogged around the corner and out of sight. Then went into the bathroom. If he'd been older he might have hesitated before doing what he was about to do. But heck to it.

The reporter was smiling down at Dodger almost cruelly, and now the blond-haired boy was stuck between him and a wall.

"What's your last name, Dodger? Where do you live, Dodger? What do you know about the Underminer, Dodger? What-?"

"Hey!"

A red and blond blur zoomed by and down the hall, knocking the reporter over as he passed. He dropped his notepad. Everyone started to mutter and look at the corner it had gone around. The reporter looked after it, too. Was it really…?

"Boo!" Rapid Fire shouted as he ran down the hall again, coming from the same direction he had before. This time when he passed he stole the notepad and ran by the corner, almost flattening Ms. Niblack.

"It's Rapid Fire!" Mickey shouted, and everyone in the hall went running after him. Needless to say, Ms. Niblack had a bit of a problem trying to avoid the stampede, and had to run ahead of everyone just as the bell rang.

In the bathroom, Dash smiled down at the notepad as its torn pieces were flushed down the toilet. Putting back on his normal clothes, Dash exited the bathroom just as the stampede went by, and he joined.

"You see that Mickey?" he shouted as they all ran.

"Huh? Oh, hey Dash, didn't see you there, sorry! Yeah! Can you imagine? Rapid Fire in our own school!"

Dash tried not to look too pleased with himself, especially since he knew he probably just made things worse for himself for the rest of the week. Eh, who cares. "Yeah! Sweet!"

Violet had some trouble as well. **(A/N I know, I know, it's like the never-freakin'-ending chapter)** The reporters who'd been sent to the high school were a bit smarter than those at the elementary school, or at least a little more organized. They had spent Monday going through student profiles as much as they were allowed to narrow down the search. Apparently about twenty different girls matched what the folks were looking for, and each one was 'given' their own personal reporter. Or, as each of these girls seemed to agree, stalkers. And, of course, Violet was one of them.

Never before had Violet actually been happy to go to math class. Her personal nightmare had caught up to her before the morning bell had even rang, and already the woman had given Vi a headache.

"You look awful, Vi."

"Thanks, Sarah."

"You get any of this stuff the Teach is saying?" Sarah liked to call teachers the Teach, like they don't deserve names because of all the crap they put students through. Somewhere in the back of Vi's mind she knew they probably did deserve names; after all, they were living nightmarish lives dealing with drunk teens for little to no pay. But she still liked it when Sarah called them the Teach.

"Not at all."

"Your secret admirer is still there," Sarah said, pointing a thumb over her shoulder at the door.

"Well, crap."

"Sarah, perhaps you can come up with the correct answer?" the Teach said loudly. Violet turned to Sarah just like everyone else in the class, each student thinking how thankful they were it wasn't them.

"Uh… Not Enough Information?"

The Teach glared her down for a moment. "Correct."

Sarah sighed noticeably. Then the bell rang and Violet realized she must now deal with that thing outside the door.

"Good luck," Sarah said.

"Yeah." Violet waited for everyone else to pile out of the room before her, her eyes never leaving the woman with shades. The woman watched Violet in return. They both knew that the press wasn't allowed in the classrooms. They also knew the hallways were fair ground.

_If I could get to a bathroom and turn invisible, I could so beat her up_. Vi knew that was a lie. She wasn't wearing E's special clothes. Drat.

Finally, Vi moved. And boy did she move. Violet ran right out that door, swinging her book bag over her shoulder at just the right time so that the reporter had to duck to avoid getting hit in the head (which she had learned earlier wasn't very pleasant if the bag is full of textbooks).

"Outta my way!" Violet shouted as she lunged through the hallway.

"Move it!" she heard the woman yell as she shoved through the crowd, following Vi.

_Ha ha ha!_ Violet thought smugly. _Eat my dust!_

She was about to turn down the hallway where her next classroom was when she saw none other than Rydinger walking in her direction. _And we veer to the left!_ This sudden change of course was a bit problematic, because as it turned out, the janitor had marked off the hall Violet had veered left into, and now she stood slipping across hall-clean-up junk. She dared a glance over her shoulder. Yep, the stalker had followed her down the hallway.

Violet looked back in front of her. "AAAAA!" Vi and some other girl collided in the middle of the hall and both girls collapsed in the endless pool of wet icky-ness. Both groaned as they stood back up, and it was only then that Violet noticed a second reporter, a guy, coming down the opposite end of the hallway.

_They're surrounding me!_ was Vi's first reaction. Then she realized the girl she bumped into was only a little taller than herself with almost-black brown hair and gray-blue eyes. Any other day she wouldn't have given this person a second-glance. Today, they were the best of friends.

The reporters had almost caught up. The girls' eyes met, and they both thought the same thing. Without a word, they turned to face their own particular stalker (both of which were running full throttle down the wet hallway). And when the reporters were almost there… they moved out of the way.

Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, slipslipslipslipslip, double-crash! Whamo!

"They so deserved that."

"Good luck with the rest of the day," Vi said.

"You too," the girl said, and they both sprinted down the hall to their own classroom.

The reporter reached Violet's English class just as the bell rang. Violet was waiting on the other side, smiling through the window in the door. The woman removed her shades to look at Violet on the other side of the glass, and Vi couldn't help but feel very, _very _happy to see the woman was covered head-to-toe in that hallway-buffer crap. The teen raised a hand in front of the window and waved. The look in the woman's eyes said it all as Vi turned to take her seat. This is war.

**Bup-ba-da-daaaaaa! Can you believe it? The chapter actually ended! Amazing, huh? And I haven't even had pop-tarts today (I miss them so, I could use a sugar high). Did you know mosquitoes are attracted to people who've recently eaten a banana? Whatever, see y'all later**

**Review…?**


	26. Mail call

**LET'S GET EMOTIONAL GIRLS TO ALL WEAR MOOD RINGS!**

**Got a new Relient K cd (oddly enough, one of their first), and listenin' to it for the first time. Exciting huh? BOO-YAH! Okay that was random. So how goes life, everyone? School sucks, doesn't it? Enjoy the never-ending-chapter last time? Good, 'cause I have no idea what to do now.**

Somehow the whole family was sitting around the table at four (a rarity in a super household, let alone a normal one). Helen fed Jack-Jack his dinner that evening rather absent-mindedly. Twice she had spooned air some green applesauce slop, and even more often had she tried feeding the baby boy her own taco.

"Mom, you missed again."

"Oh, oops. Sorry Jack-Jack." She resumed looking out the window.

"Helen, are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine!"

"Okay," Bob said, although he continued to eye her worriedly.

"Mom-"

"What already?"

"You've got taco stuff on your face."

"Oh…" Helen wiped Jack-Jack's face off. "Sorry Vi."

"Mom!"

"What now!"

"_Your_ face! It's on your face!"

"What are you talking about, Dash?"

"Oh for pete's sake!" Vi exclaimed as she leaned forward in her chair and wiped her mother's cheek of the taco-ness. Helen hardly noticed. Just continued to stare out the window. _Where is the mailman! _

"Well, I'm done," Dash announced as he gathered his plate and utensils to drop off in the kitchen. He'd hardly touched his food; somehow he didn't trust this slightly ditzy Helen with cooking.

"Me too," Violet said.

"Me three!" Bob exclaimed.

"Finish your vegetables, Dash," Helen said in a daze.

"Did Mom eat something?" Dash asked his father.

"Well, it could be the tacos," Vi suggested. The kids retreated to their bedrooms.

"Honey, you okay?" Bob asked his wife again.

"Great! Never been better!" Helen said very loudly.

"Honey, Jack-Jack's plate has been empty for the last five minutes."

"Huh?" Helen looked down; sure enough, the baby-plate was clean. Jack-Jack looked ready to turn to sludge after eating so much. In fact, he probably could.

"Uh, honey? I think Jack-Jack needs to have his diaper changed."

"Uh right."

So Helen attempted to change Jack-Jack's diaper upstairs while still watching the front window from downstairs **(A/N ahh, elastic necks. Can you imagine how many mothers would jump at the chance to be made of elastic?)** Problem, of course, comes to play when someone else exists in the household.

Dash was headed to the den/living room/whatever, reading a magazine, when he tripped over his mother's neck. Ouch.

"What the-!"

"Yeow!"

"What happened! He- whoooooaaa!" Bump. Bam. Rollrollroll, POW!

As you can imagine, Dash tripped over his mother's neck at the worst possible point, the staircase. And then of course upon hearing this commotion, Violet came out to see what could make such a horrible racket, and ended up somewhere in that mess so now everyone lay on the bottom of the stairs. Well, Dash and Vi were laying at the bottom of the stairs, tied up in Helen's neck; Helen's head just happened to be there as well. Then Bob walked into the room.

"Hey Dad, wanna give us a hand?" Dash asked.

Bob burst out laughing.

"Thank you, Robert," Helen said as she and her two eldest children glared.

"Sorry!" he choked between laughs. "I'll just go load the dishwasher!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Helen grunted as everyone struggled to get out of the mess.

Jack-Jack started crying.

"Just a second!" Helen called panicky. Just then she saw the mailman arrive through the front windows. _Bad bad bad!_

"Hey Vi, got any scissors?" Dash asked, pulling on his rubber bonds without much affect.

"What!"

"Don't look at me like that, Mom. I want out!"

"Well so do I!"

"I can't take it anymore!" Violet shouted. She put up forcefield around herself, shoving the elastic neck outta the way. Letting the field down, she was now able to climb out and up the stairs back to her room.

"Hey what about me!" Dash shouted.

Vi looked down at her brother… and continued to her room.

"I guess I deserved that," Dash said.

Jack-Jack was still crying, and Helen had little feeling in her neck. Then they heard something crash in the kitchen. _Bob can't do dishes!_ she suddenly recalled. Yes, after years of trying to educate the man, Helen had never managed to teach her husband how to handle porcelain without turning it into rubble.

"Dash, hold on tight," Helen ordered.

"What d'you me-waaa!"

Helen de-stretched her neck until her head was once again in the same room as Jack-Jack. There just happened to be a Dash sticking horizontally out of a knot in her neck.

"This is not cool, Mom."

"Oh, I agree," Helen said, her voice cracking. The room was on fire, as was Jack-Jack. "I need a fire extinguisher, stat!" she screamed.

Violet threw one in.

"Don't tell me- the room's on fire," Dash said.

"Yeah," Helen shouted over the flames as she fought them back. More china could be heard breaking downstairs. _I need to get the mail!_

"Honey, I could use a hand down here!" Bob yelled up the stairs.

"One minute!"

"Yeah, you're gonna need it," Violet said casually, standing in the doorway and drinking a soda while watching her mother fight the fire.

Finally the fire was controlled, except for the bawling Jack-Jack.

"Dash, take care of Jack-Jack!" Helen ordered as she hurried toward the door.

"How exactly?" Dash asked, still restrained in his mother's neck.

"Do you mind Vi?" Helen asked. Violet rolled her eyes and put a forcefield around Dash, then moved him out of the mess of neck. She tossed him down the hall.

"Ow!"

"You're welcome," Violet grumbled.

"Violet, take care of Jack-Jack," Helen ordered Vi, tossing her the fire extinguisher.

"Yeah whatever."

Helen bolted down the stairs to the kitchen, wanting desperately to detour to the mailbox. "What did you do!" Helen shouted at Bob when she got to the kitchen.

Broken plates, bowls, utensils, and glasses. Everywhere. And a spouting sink for good measure. Bob smiled guiltily. Helen groaned as she started to clean up the mess, using her superpowers to their fullest extent. _Mail mail mail mail mail mail!_

Half an hour later, Helen was practically sprinting for the front door. Just as she opened the front door, she saw Bob there, getting the mail from the mailbox. _No no no no NO!_

"No!" Helen shouted, definitely sprinting across the front lawn now to take the mail from her husband. But it was too late. Helen reached him just as he flipped up the last envelope and saw the magazine, West Living. The cover of the magazine.

There was Helen on the cover of West Living. With Jack-Jack. On the front of a magazine. And someone else. Another model, Bob assumed somewhere in his subconscious. A man…

Helen looked from Bob's eyes to the magazine; his gaze was locked on the guy. A younger fellow than Bob, or at least younger looking. He was quite simply tall, dark, and handsome. The photograph portrayed the three as a family; Helen holding up a smiling Jack-Jack while the man was hugging her.

Bob just looked at the magazine.

"I was going to burn it before anyone saw," Helen mumbled (by now the knot in her neck was gone). Bob barely heard her. Somewhere, the voice of reason in his head was telling him to ignore the picture; it meant nothing. It was telling him to be happy, happy for Helen, for getting on the cover of a magazine. But we very rarely listen to those voices do we?

Helen seemed to wrap around herself. She knew she had no real reason to feel guilty, but she did.

The painful moment was finally interrupted when something came crashing out of an upstairs window. A fire extinguisher. From inside, there was an "oops" heard. That's when Vi and Dash stuck their heads out of the window; both looked like someone had tried to barbecue them.

"Wow, Vi, you dented the driveway with it!"

"Shut up, you twerp." Violet looked up and saw her parents. "Hey Dad?" she yelled. "We're gonna need another window… and a fire-extinguisher refill or something. Think you could drive by the hardware store?"

Bob turned his gaze from his daughter to his wife. "Yeah."

The darkened man dropped the mail into Helen's hands, got into the normalized Incredicar, and sped out the driveway.

Helen could do nothing but watch him go, and sigh somewhat sadly.

That night was rather cold and lonely. Helen and Bob hadn't spoke since he'd come home with the requested supplies. Vi and Dash, sensing this was not the time to be a 'disturbance,' retreated to their rooms for the rest of the evening (and for his sake, kept Jack-Jack with them). So there the two were, Helen doing the ironing while watching the news as Bob read the newspaper. The tension was enough to drive a person nuts. Finally, Helen couldn't take it any longer.

"It's not that big a deal," she said after the several-hour long silence.

Bob opened his paper further, pulling it high up so his face couldn't be seen.

"Bob, come on, say something to me!"

"Like what? What do I say to this?" Bob stormed, putting down his paper to glare at his wife.

"This? It's just a quick job I can quit anytime I like! Just a paycheck!"

"And I suppose I'm not enough of a paycheck to satisfy?" Bob growled as he hid back behind the paper.

"What! For starters, you've never been a paycheck to me! Secondly, in case you haven't noticed, _you_ are the one who got fired! Maybe if you hadn't I wouldn't have to pick up a job so we can support our family!"

"I got fired defending my family!"

"You lost your temper!"

"You weren't there!"

"Doesn't matter!"

Bob screwed his face up a bit, anger rising. "I'm the reason we got the money for Syndrome's arrest!"

"We did that as a family, and you know it! And that _mess_ happened when you got fired before!"

"That _mess_ has given supers a second chance!"

"A chance! What chance! Bob, don't you get it? It'll never really last! It'll just happen all over again! Or if it doesn't, McCormick and his lot will have us all gone!"

"How can you say that!"

"I'm not saying I like it!" Helen had thoroughly forgotten the iron at this point. "I'm being realistic!"

"Whatever happened to hope, huh! Whatever happened to having some faith! What about your kids; they deserve a chance to use their powers, don't they!"

"Of course they do!"

"Since when are you too good for superhero work!"

"Is that what this is really about? You think I feel too good for you because I was on the cover on some magazine?"

That one hit home. Bob and Helen were standing, facing each other. Bob dug through his mind for a way to turn this around. But Helen was right that time. Bob felt bested, he felt as though he had no use anymore. His workplace didn't need him, his kids were growing up and away, and obviously Helen was perfectly capable of providing for them all without losing touch with the family. And the country didn't want much of his help as a super either. That's what had Bob. He had no purpose if he couldn't support his family _or_ help save lives as a super.

And the truth was that Helen felt pretty awful about herself as well. She felt guilty about that stupid magazine gig; she should've known Bob would feel hurt if she took over his place in the family pyramid. Plus, she felt as though she'd betrayed him in that picture.

However, there was something in the argument that now haunted both their minds, more so than ever before. What chance did the supers _really_ have against the politicians? Sure, supers could melt metal or turn invisible or outrun a cheetah or walk through walls, but what was that if they couldn't help people? What was that compared to the power of the people, politicians, and laws? How could any super stand it; either help people and become the criminal you despise, or obey the law and watch as people suffered…

Helen and Bob just glared at each other. It wasn't until they heard a shirt burning under the iron that they moved. Helen turned the iron off and put it away roughly while Bob turned off the TV. His wife stormed into their bedroom, slamming the door behind her like a moody teenager. Bob pulled some blankets out of the hallway closet and set himself up on the couch, glowering in the darkness. Guilt was clenching the hearts of both. Arguing sucked, but their anger and pride would keep them from apologizing. Then they both heard it.

A knock on a door. "Come in," Violet said. Helen could hear this through the wall, and Bob through the ceiling. Muffled, but they heard it.

"Hey Vi?"

"What's up Squirt? Want me to take Jack-Jack?"

"Naw, that's all right. Hey Vi?"

There was silence. In Bob's mind's eye he saw his daughter looking up from something to Dash.

"Did you hear that?"

More silence. She nodded?

"Their fighting again."

"Everyone fights, twerp, you're living proof."

"But I thought they were done."

"They will be soon enough."

"You don't think… they'll get a divorce?" Dash's voice was so low it was almost imperceptible. He had only recently really gotten a feel for what a divorce was.

"Nope."

"Really?"

"Not a chance, Creepazoid."

"Weirdo."

"Punk."

"Girl."

"I am a girl."

"Shut up."

"Girl."

"Hey!"

Helen and Bob's overpowering pride deteriorated. In its stead came shame, which would work just as well at keeping them from apologizing.

Somehow, the Incredibles had to push through this. Not just the Underminer or McCormick… All of it…

**My first attempt at spousal argumentation! What'ya think? Hey, I just noticed something funny. The character that is basically Vi's best friend in here is a girl named Sarah, and Vi is voiced by a Sarah in the movie. Weird.**

**P.S. I should mention that the deeper into the plot we go, the less insanity is gonna be coming out, methinks... until, like the ultimate climactic moment which I am evilly planning and cannot wait to spring upon you. In the words of Helen Parr, ha ha ha.**

**Review…?**


	27. Perhaps a bit too whimsical

**HOLY MOTHER OF CHOCOLATE! WE BROKE 100 REVIEWS! I'd like to thank the academy- just kidding! YOU PEOPLE ROCK OUT! SERIOUSLY! THE BEST! I must now buy a box of pop-tarts for each of you. No... FIVE boxes, BWA HAHAHA! AND A PINK BUNNY WITH ALL THE ANSWERS TO YOUR MATH TESTS ON HIM! (is dancing) La cucaracha! La cucaracha! La de da de da de da de daaaa! Well, now that we've established this...**

**Okay, so that was a somewhat depressing last chapter by comparison to others. Maybe I better up the sugar intake (cause that's healthy). **

**(singing) The hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiills are aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive with the sound of muuuuuuusiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiic**

"Pprpth!"

"Ow!"

"Sorry!"

"Just keep practicing," Violet said to Dash. Apparently the elementary school had started a new program where all sixth graders had to learn to play an instrument. And Dash, being a sixth grader instead of fifth, was included in this. Much to Violet's horror.

"Why couldn't you have chosen a quieter instrument?"

"I like the trumpet."

"Yeah, well you're breaking my ears off!" Violet exclaimed, covering her ears again as her younger brother blew into the trumpet.

"All the better. Yeow, that was close!"

Vi had thrown her history book at him and he'd only just darted out of the way.

"C'mon, I'm not that bad!"

"Yes you are!"

"I'm not even trying yet."

"Well then spare us, please!"

"Dash, Vi!" Helen scolded up the stairs. "Be nice."

They waited until her footsteps were out of earshot.

"So how are things with Tony?" Dash asked teasingly.

"Shut it or I'll throw my math book instead next time."

Dash stuck out his tongue.

"Play your stupid trumpet."

Dash hesitated a moment, then raised the brass to his mouth and played a short version of 'Mary had a little lamb.'

"Well, it beats 'ppbth!'"

"Shut up."

"You shut it."

"You!"

"You!"

"Kids," Bob yelled. "Play nice."

"Yeah whatever," Vi said to no one in particular, returning to her math work. As Dash raised his instrument to his lips, Vi put a field around her brother.

"Hey!" Vi heard Dash say from inside the forcefield.

"What?"

"Lemme out!"

"I'm protecting my eardrums!"

"No forcefields!"

"You're really not in a position to argue," Vi said, turning the page of her textbook.

"Let me out!"

"I don't hear you practicing, Dash!" Bob shouted.

"That's not my fault!" Dash shouted, although he was voice was slightly muffled and muted by the field around him.

"Think of it this way," Vi said, smiling, "now you don't gotta worry about having textbooks thrown at you."

"Ha ha," Dash grumbled. He started to play again, and this time not only was it tolerable but reasonably pleasant considering. Violet eventually put down the field (although part of the reason for that was so she could duck out of the way of some Jack-Jack laser vision!).

Things had been a bit hostile that week in the Parr house (it was now Thursday). Let's say the products of the marital disagreement had not simmered down much. Helen had, however, called up Jacob at West Living to tell him not to call her for a modeling gig, she wasn't coming. Bob didn't know this, of course, just like Helen didn't know that he'd already gone to about five job interviews in the last few days. Dash and Vi had had a hard time during school as well, what with the stupid press everywhere. Violet was still recovering from her close call that afternoon. The hiccups and the ability to turn invisible were not made to mix.

Presently, Helen was folding laundry and, as usual, Bob was semi-hidden behind the Metroville Tribune. They'd barely spoke to one another since their fight. Finally Bob made a brave move.

"Here," he said quietly. "Let me help."

Helen didn't say anything, just made room for Bob by the laundry basket. Every garment she folded she then placed in the proper room with her stretchy arms.

"Uh, Helen?"

"Bob."

"Hey listen. About our… argument, I… I didn't mean what I said, you know, about being too good for superhero work."

"I know," Helen said, although there was a visible relaxation in her.

"I… I shouldn't have been upset," Bob continued, focusing intently on the t-shirt he was folding for the tenth time. "I mean, I shouldn't have gotten fired and then, well you know, gotten angry… about you getting a job."

Helen sighed, stopped folding clothes and putting them away. "No, you were right."

Dash continued playing on his trumpet.

"I shouldn't have just taken over; I should have had more faith."

"Oh, just get it over with already!" Violet shouted over Dash's trumpet. Helen and Bob smiled.

"Sorry."

"Me too."

"You really think the supers don't have a chance?"

"There's always a chance."

There was a loud, female, teenager's groan heard from upstairs while the trumpet carried on.

"That girl…" Helen said, sort of glaring at the ceiling.

"Wanna dance?" Bob asked.

"What?"

"We have music!"

"An eleven year old playing the trumpet for the first time."

"Third."

Helen just rolled her eyes and conceded to Bob's request.

"That didn't hurt so bad, did it?"

"It will if you step on my toes."

"Oh come on, I'm not that bad."

Violet just rolled her eyes and put a forcefield around herself so she could ignore the utter sappiness of the adults of the house. After a while, Dash finally stopped and the parents were forced to return to the laundry folding (in a much better mood than before). Vi stood up and looked over Dash's shoulder at his music book.

"Is that what's written there?" she asked, referring to Dash's little solo.

"I dunno."

"What?"

"I can't read the music."

Vi rolled her eyes, knowing if her family got much more intolerable, she might as well just keep her eyes in that position.

**Je suis un crayon. J'adore le crayon. Tu te parler? Maybe I should leave french to the French.**

**(Okay, not my best writing. School sucks. I wonder why they call lollipops "suckers"...)**


	28. Can you come out and play?

**This is gonna be like THE shortest chapter, so brace yourselves for any let downs that comes from shortness.**

The next day (Friday) school let out early, so Helen dropped Dash and Vi off at the city zoo for the afternoon. Dash was thrilled; Violet was less so.

"Hey look Vi! Frogs!"

"Groovy."

"And check out this snake!"

"Uh… no."

"Oh c'mon, don't be such a coward!"

"Dash let go, I don't wanna see the snake!"

"Look at it! It's like forty feet long!"

Vi let out a sound of mild terror. "Dash, could we go see something a little less reptile?"

"We're _in _the reptile house."

"We can leave it. How 'bout we go see the monkeys or something?"

"The monkeys smell."

"Well isn't there anything else you'd like to see?"

Ten minutes later, they were by the cheetahs. "I shoulda seen this coming."

"How much you wanna bet I can outrun 'em?"

"I know you can, Dash."

"That's Rapid Fire, to you!"

"Ha ha, c'mon before you get into trouble."

"Oh please oh please oh pleeeeeze!"

"I've already told you 'no,' and I meant it."

"I won't tell Mom!"

"One, yes you would, two, even if you can outrun them they still have teeth and claws, three, I am not letting you sneak in there if my life depended on it! Now come on!" Violet shouted, grabbing hold of Dash's wrist and pulling him away from the cheetahs.

"No! I'll come back, my cheetahs, don't you worry!"

"Come on!"

"Be good for daddy now, okay Spots?"

"You named them?"

"Of course I did."

"And 'Spots' is so original," Vi said, this time succeeding in getting Dash away from the cheetahs and onto the next big cat pit. "Look, the tiger pit. Aren't they interesting?"

"They're slow," Dash pouted.

"They're twice the size of your cheetah pals."

"They're dumb."

"They have more room for brains than you do."

"Shut up."

"Cool it. Come on, the tiger's aren't that-"

"Isaac, no!" someone screamed. The Parr kids turned to look just in time to see a boy no older than seven lean too far over the fence and into the tiger pit.

"Ooohhhh dear."

**Voila! I bet you're wondering when we're gonna see the Underminer again and get this thing wrapped up. No worries, hakuna matata! As soon as I remember where I put my pop-tarts, I'll get right on it!**

**Review…?**


	29. Between a cop and a hard place

**AAAAAAA WRITER'S BLOCK IS KILLING MEEEEEEE AAAAAAAAAAAAAA1111111111111111111111! (Where did the ones come from...?) I supremely apologize for my utter lack of... unblockedness, to reader's of any of the fanfictions that I write (or attempt to). Methinks its time to go back to FROSTED pop-tarts! But in the mean time, (throws bottle of root beer upon head and dances like a monkey)**

A boy had fallen into the tiger pit. Dear God.

Everyone was screaming, pointing, calling friends or the cops on cell phones. A few people even started screaming it was terrorism, but someone calmed the couple down shortly after they started cursing out the President for lousy defense or something like that. In no time the cops were there with zoo officials, and the press.

Meanwhile, Violet's eyes were glued to the boy, who was screaming in pain and (obviously) terror. Who could blame him, he fell at least fifty feet head first into a tiger pit- he was lucky his neck wasn't broken. However, his luck was running out; the pandemonium above was quite loud (by definition), and the noise was waking the tiger that had been sleeping on the other side of the pit (God forbid).

"Vi," Dash said. "Vi, he's getting up!"

"No he's not."

"I mean the tiger!"

Violet looked. It seemed Dash was correct, and now everyone was noticing it as well. Thus bringing the volume of the area up a few hundred notches.

"V-Vi, wha-what d'we do?" Dash yelled.

"I-I don't know!"

"W-Well shouldn't we help!"

"Of course we should, but how!" Violet exclaimed, turning to Dash. In a quieter voice, she said, "I don't have my supersuit on, do you?"

Dash shook his head violently.

"Perfect."

Suddenly two men popped up next to Dash and Vi, one carrying a large camera, the other with a microphone. Dash and Vi looked each other in the eye, knowing full well they were thinking the same exact thing: _you can't be serious_.

"Here we go! 5...4...3..." the cameraman said, holding up his fingers instead of saying 2 and 1.

"This is Wat Abidge, reporting live for News Ten. A disaster has begun to unfold here at the Metroville Zoo…" **(A/N I dare you to say the reporter's name out loud)**

The cameraman stepped forward to catch the action in the pit, and Vi was finally able to turn back to the boy and tiger below. The tiger was smelling the air, probably smelling the large amount of fear on the air, along with trying to understand this new smell in his pit.

"This can't get any worse, can it!" Vi asked Dash wildly.

Then things got worse. While the Parr kids were trapped by the news crew to the left, a bunch of cops and zoo folks just arrived to their right. It seemed that unless the zoo people hurried up with some tranquilizers that appeared to have been misplaced, the cops were gonna shoot the tiger. It also seemed that the zoo people would gladly shoot the cops if they did that since they'd just spent two years trying to get the Siberian tiger below that was just brought in two months ago.

The tiger stood up and the screaming got louder. The boy was losing it, standing up on his fall-bloodied legs to claw at the concrete wall that surrounded himself and the tiger.

Violet didn't know what to do. She and Dash had to do something, anything, but what, and how? It seemed impossible to do it without putting themselves in danger. It was a perfect example of 'pick your poison.' One, they could somehow figure out how to use their powers to help the boy, therefore exposing their identities in front of the press and the cops, resulting in scandal and probably arrest. Two, they could just leave and be guilty of either letting a boy or a tiger die. Three, they could try helping the boy without using their powers, which would require getting into the pit with the tiger (which would only make things worse). Four, they could not come to a decision in time to act upon it. And of course there were more options, more than Vi's mind could count as she raced through her brain for a solution to the problem.

"-a Siberian tiger the zoo-"

"-Until recently, this creature was-"

"-Shoot the animal, you freaks!-"

"-help my son! My son-"

"- seven year old boy, Isaac-"

"-the tranquilizers, according to officials-"

"-can't shoot the tiger-"

Violet's mind was pulled down by the chaos around her. Dash glanced from her to the action below in panic. The tiger had spotted the boy by now and was taking his time to check it out. A zoo visitor threw a soda at the tiger from above, making the tiger start. A cop and zoo official immediately tackled the visitor while the tiger snarled up at the person. And naturally, the projectile ended up making the tiger move closer to bawling boy. Now his yellow eyes were fixed upon Isaac.

"Hello, promotion!" the reporter whispered to the cameraman.

"Someone get that rifle ready!" the head cop to their right said while the zoo official in charge began to yell angrily at him.

"That is an endangered species, you cannot simply shoot it down like it's a video game, you sick-!"

"Vi, we gotta do something now!" Dash whispered urgently.

"I know I know I know!" _What do I do!_

The tiger was stalking along behind to boy, who was still clawing at the wall, tears streaming down his face. What if she exposed her entire family, possibly even Lucious Best, as supers? The boy was screaming he was going to die; his parents were losing it, just above their son and able to do nothing to save him from the impending doom. What if she didn't save the boy anyways? The tiger was only about twenty feet away now, closing in fast, preparing to leap. What if this was the movie theater all over again? What was she supposed to do?

Cops aimed pistols. A young zoo volunteer was running up the hill with a tranquilizer. The tiger sprang. Everyone screamed.

"Violet!" Dash screamed.

_When the time comes, you'll know what to do…_

The entire crowd seemed to take in their breath, astonished as they watched the tiger slip and slide, clawing and biting at something between it and the boy- a slightly purple tinted dome that separated the two. Then a different kind of chaos broke loose.

Violet was breathing like she'd just run a hundred miles, and Dash was trying to calm her down.

"It's okay Vi," he whispered (although he needn't have bothered, no one could hear over the screaming and the roars of the tiger). "It's okay, you did it."

"(inhale) That was too close (inhale)."

"Vi, doesn't matter, you did it."

"Yeah (inhale) Splendiferous. Now look what I've done."

Indeed, the appearance of a forcefield everyone knew meant one thing- Shadow was nearby, and everyone was so very close to discovering her secret identity and thereby all the Incredibles'. The press was looking around wildly, searching for a teenage girl with incredible superpowers. The cops, too, were looking every which way. Although they were all relieved to see no one hurt, this was a direct violation of super restrictions, and the entire nation's police force would get it from McCormick if Shadow wasn't arrested.

The zoo officials had finally managed to tranquilize the tiger.

"Dash," Vi whispered. "We need to get outta here fast."

"I thought you'd never ask. It's not a problem."

"For you, but it is for me, which is why I'm about to ask you to do something Mom's gonna kill me for."

"You have my attention."

Vi glanced around to make sure no one had noticed her hands sticking out, controlling the field. Boy, she felt on edge, what with some top reporter on one side of her and the cops on the other. If they'd just look down at where she was kneeling, she'd be so screwed.

People were moving into the pit to remove the tiger.

Violet grimaced as she said it. "I want you to run home as fast as you can…"

Dash was nodding eagerly.

"…and find me a very fast form of transportation. You got two minutes, 'kay?"

"On it!" Dash exclaimed. Thank goodness he was using his head and only jogging out of the zoo with this many people around. Violet watched him carefully until, hiding behind a bush for a few moments so no one saw him, he dashed off.

Violet turned her attention back to the pit, her heart still pounding. What if Tony was here at the zoo, or saw this on the news? Would he call the cops here and tell them who to look for? _No, stop thinking like that. Tony does not exist at the moment. You just saved a kid's life, screw Tony._

The tiger looked heavy as a team of about eight slowly carried it inside. As soon as the tiger was in an indoor cage below, medics would move in to retrieve the boy, Vi would be able to breath, and everyone would stop screaming. She wondered what Dash would come up with with only about thirty seconds to spare.

What she didn't know is that outside the zoo…

"Stay in your lane, buddy!" Rapid Fire, fully suited, screamed out the window from behind the wheel of the super-morphed Incredicar. He crashed and zoomed through traffic until he reached the road that bordered the entrance side of the zoo, where he promptly stopped to wait, ignoring many stares from passers-by.

Violet watched the medics and the boy's parents rush into the tiger pit towards Isaac, her heartbeat final normalizing (although she couldn't say the same for the boy's mother by the looks of it). They all surrounded her forcefield, glancing at one another for a lack of knowing what to do. After a moment's hesitation, Vi let it go, and the boy was safe. Before the cops or reporters around her could notice, Violet turned on her heel and started walking away, which became a jog, which became a full-out sprint. Taking off her headband, she was able to hide her face and identity from everyone around her as she climbed into the Incredicar and they rocketed out. Of course, Violet had a cow when she found out Dash had driven himself there, hit the auto drive button after normalizing the car, and spent the trip throttling her brother.

And whether Violet, or Dash for that matter, knew it or not, they had just given McCormick and his supporters hell to deal with as soon as the story hit the papers/airwaves.

Meanwhile, back at the house, Bob opened the door to see a familiar face. It was Dean, with Lucious (who looked confused as to what was going on). And Dean was smiling.

"Hey, Mr. Inc," he said happily. "I gotta idea. Still got that Underminer cd I made ya?"

**Well, I tried. At least we're FINALLY AT THE CLIMAX! WOOHOO! I MUST SING! RAINDROPS ON ROSES AND WHISKERS ON KITTENS! BRIGHT COPPER KETTLES AND WARM WOOLEN MITTENS (warm pop-tarts, too. and brownies)! BROWN PAPER PACKAGES TIED UP WITH STRING, THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS! **

**Review…?**


	30. May poptarts rule forever

**30! We are on a thirty! …I should go make pop-tarts before I start typing… **

**Okay, I'm back! Let the Mayhem begin!**

"Bob, who is this kid?" Lucious asked, loudly, as Dean led the confused man into Bob Parr's house.

"Dean, what're you doing here?" Helen asked, passing through the room with laundry.

"That's a good question," Bob commented. He watched utterly befuggled as Dean dug through the cds by the family computer.

"Dean?" Lucious asked. "Who's Dean?"

"Where is it…" Dean was saying to himself.

Just then, Violet and Dash walked through the door, both looking more than just a little frazzled.

"Kids? I was going to pick you up from the zoo in a few minutes. Wait, how did you get here anyways?"

"What're Dean and Lucious doing here?"

"Yeah, I have a project to work on!"

"Wait a minute. Violet, why is the car outside fuming? And why isn't it in the garage where I parked it?"

"Yeah, Vi, why is that?"

"Shut up, Twerp."

"Who the heck is Dean!"

"Where the heck you put it, Mr. Inc?"

"Bob, what on earth is going on here?"

Too… many… questions!

"STOP!" Bob shouted.

(crickets chirp)…

"Okay," Bob said quietly. "One at a time. Lucious, this," Bob said motioning to Dean, "is Dean. Dean being Carter's kid."

"Carter's?… you mean YOU'RE LITTLE DEAN!" Lucious exclaimed.

"That would be me," Dean said impatiently.

"Kids," Bob went on, trying to remain patient, "care to explain why you're home from the zoo that, as far as I know, is ten miles away?"

Just then, the program on the TV in the next room was interrupted for a special report involving forcefields, tigers, and screaming little boys.

Helen rubbed her forehead. "You didn't."

"I had to," Vi said, feeling very small.

"How'd you get home?"

"Uh-"

"I hotwired the car!" Dash exclaimed proudly. "Ow!"

"Keep your mouth shut, you moron!"

"Mom, ground Vi!"

"Oh Lord…"

"Last but not least," Bob shouted, "Dean, what're you doing here?"

"You know that cd I gave you? With the Underminer?"

"Huh?" Violet and Dash looked at each other in confusion. Lucious also looked a little 'out of touch,' so to speak. Helen, on the other hand, was glaring at Bob since she also had no idea what this was about.

Bob nodded to Dean. Dean smiled. "Well, I think we might be able to find the Underminer if we just revisit that little disk."

"Really?"

"Yep!" Dean and Bob looked at each other… then dove at the computer desk, searching through cds.

"Hold it! What cd!" Helen shouted, throwing her laundry on the floor.

"Uh… well…"

"You mean he didn't tell you?" Dean asked. Everyone in the room responded a resounding "NO!"

"Bob," Helen said in a scolding voice. "What cd?"

"Um…"

"Yeah, Bob, what cd?" Dean asked.

"Be quiet."

"Dad…?"

"Well, you remember when Dash, uh… when… leg broke, you know?"

Helen nodded slightly.

"Well, Dean here, he uh, went through the rat assassin thing, and uh, found the programming. And he uh, sort of, um, made a cd out of it, the programming I mean."

"Really. And what was on there?"

"Um… well…"

"Three things, Mrs. Inc," Dean said, sitting on the floor. "One, the actual programming, like moving and that stuff, two, a video of sorts from the rat's eyes, so to speak, and three… uh…"

Bob took Helen a little way from the others and whispered to her about the profiles. When he finished, Helen stared up at him. He waited for things to compute… then she exploded.

"HE KNOWS WHO WE ARE!" Helen yelled, practically throttling her husband.

"What the-?"

"Helen, you don't have to shout," Bob said.

"I'M NOT SHOUTING, DO I LOOK LIKE I'M SHOUTING! YOU WANT SHOUTING, I'LL SHOW YOU SHOUTING!" Helen shouted.

"What do you mean, he knows who we are?" Lucious asked loudly so as to be heard over Helen's screams.

"The Underminer," Dean explained to him, squirming as Helen continued to yell. "He has profiles on each of the Incredibles."

Dash and Vi heard this. "He knows who we are?…" Violet asked nobody.

"WHY ON EARTH DIDN'T YOU TELL ME, BOB?" Helen screamed.

"I-I didn't want you to worry."

"Oh, well, THIS sounds familiar! Do you remember the last time you said that to me!"

"I thought this was different!"

"It's never different, Bob! There is no difference in these situations! I thought we'd learned this already!"

Violet, meanwhile, had a very bad feeling about this, and as much as she told herself to shut up, she couldn't help but think of Tony. _I should've told them about Tony…_

Dash was trying in vain to keep Jack-Jack from crying since the shouting had awakened the sleeping baby.

"HEY!" Everyone turned to Dean. "Look. Do you mind if I go ahead and try to find the creep, or should I come back later?"

"No… no, now is fine, Dean," Helen said.

"Good. 'Cause I just found the cd," Dean said, a twinge of annoyance in his voice. He sat down at the computer and put the disk in the drive. Immediately, he clicked on the cd's icon and went to the video icon from there.

"What's this?" Lucious asked, looking over Dean's shoulder like everyone else there.

"It's a recording of everything the rat saw and heard from the time he got turned on to the time he went kaput."

"The rat that attacked me?" Dash asked. He definitely remembered his leg; after all, the scars were still pretty obvious.

"Right."

"And how are we supposed to find the rat with this?" Bob asked incredulously.

Dean whirled around in the swivel chair. "Think about it! Have you ever hit the rewind button!"

"Uh…"

"If we watch it, end to beginning, how much you wanna bet it'll start with the Underminer!"

"Uh…"

"All WE gotta do is watch the stupid thing and look for places we recognize!"

"Oh…"

"That could work…" Lucious said.

"And it took you guys how long to think this up?" asked Dash.

For the next several hours, Dean, Bob, and Lucious sat in front of the computer watching the video in reverse with little notepads, while Helen, Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack waited for any developments. Which were few.

"Hey! That looks like a McDonald's!"

"There are tons of McDonalds in town, Dean!"

"That wasn't a McDonald's at all!"

"Are they getting anywhere?"

"Not from the looks of it, Vi."

"This isn't working!" Bob shouted, losing his temper and throwing his notes at the wall. Thus denting the wall.

"Bob, cool it!" Lucious said.

"That's the problem! The thing was programmed to get around unseen by anybody! That means avoiding any 'landmarks' we'd recognize! How can we backtrack if all we see are trees!"

"C'mon, Bob, it's all we got."

"Which isn't much."

"Thank you, Violet."

"Hey Dean?"

"What, Dash?"

"Why not just reprogram the rat thing?"

"What?" Lucious asked.

"You know, stick the video back in it and make the thing go back the way it came?"

It took a minute for the eleven-year-old's logic to compute. "Would that work!" Helen asked.

"Uh…" Dean felt dumb. "Yeah… it would…if we did it right..."

"How long would it take?"

"Uh, few hours?"

**La da-di daaaa! Now I need more pop-tarts. Idn't that a phooey? BURN HOMEWORK! **

**Review…?**


	31. A whole lot of nothing

-1**So. We excited? We're actually almost to the ending! Which is a shame since I have no idea how to end this thing. And because of that, this fan fiction has been canceled. HA! You fell for it! No, I wouldn't do that, I'm having too much fun being crazy. But you shoulda seen the look on your face! Priceless! "For everything else, there's MasterCard"! Woohoo! Wow, what was in that Sudafed?**

"No, don't put that there, THERE!"

"You mean here?"

"NO DON'T DO THAT!"

CLANG!

"Oops."

"You got that right."

'It'd take a few hours,' my patookus. These were the words that could be heard through the door of Dean's workshop, where he put Lucious and Robert to work helping him rebuild the Robot Rat Assassin thing while Helen and the kids waited in Dean's house. Which Helen was less than thrilled with simply because of the fact that mothers like clean houses and (most) bachelors are slobs.

"How long's it been?" Dash asked, laying on the back of Dean's couch.

"About ten hours, Sweetie."

"Mom, don't call me that, I'm eleven!"

"Forget it, Twerp. You've been dubbed 'sweetie' for the rest of your life," Violet said from the floor. Dash stuck his tongue out at her, and Violet returned the gesture.

"Enough you two. Honestly, can't you ever be nice to each other?"

"We are being nice."

"No, you're not."

"Look, Mom, it's a sibling thing."

"Yeah, you wouldn't understand."

"I'd watch it if I were you," Helen said warningly as she fed Jack-Jack.

"Goo-goo-maana?"

"You tell her, Kid."

"Violet, you feel okay? You aren't, like, drunk or something?" Dash asked.

"Never better," the not-okay teen said. You would be the same way if you were half-asleep in an old coffee stain. And preparing to save the city from a deranged rat-man who knows you're a super-hero, who probably found out from your former boyfriend. Hm, personally, I wouldn't be preparing to save the city by being half-asleep in a coffee stain.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Helen and the kids looked up at the sound of terror. At about the same time, Lucious came bursting into the room, his jacket on fire.

"TURN IT OFF! PUT IT OUT! I SWEAR I'M GONNA-!"

"Dude, chill," Dash said.

"… Oh yeah…" Lucious said (his jacket STILL on fire!). He then pointed his hand at his face and-

"NO YOU CRAZY-!" Helen shrieked as she reached across the room and moved his hand away from his head and face.

"YIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEE, THAT'S COLD!"

"What a shock."

Frozone's torso was in a very large ice-cube.

"THIS WAS A NEW JACKET!"

"SHOULDA THOUGHT OF THAT BEFORE YOU GOT TO PLAYING WITH THE PROPANE TORCH!" Dean shouted as he came stomping into the room, Robert close behind and carrying about five very large metal things.

"OH SURE, BLAME THE BLACK GUY!"

"Uh, guys…?"

"NOW YOU WAIT JUST MINUTE!"

"Lucious, don't you think you might be over-reacting just a bit?"

"-AND I'LL TELL YOU SOMETHING ELSE, YOU HISPANIC-HATING-"

"OH, DON'T EVEN TRY PULLING THE RACE CARD ON ME, YOU TEENAGER!"

"HEY!" (Violet was awake now) "WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA!"

This is where Bob dropped everything he was carrying. On his foot.

"OW!

"WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM! I THOUGHT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE SUPER STRONG!"

"THAT DOESN'T MEAN I CAN JUGGLE!"

"Boys, calm down."

"HELEN, WE'VE BEEN IN A WAREHOUSE FOR TEN HOURS, I DO NOT FEEL LIKE COOLING DOWN!"

"HOWEVER, IT LOOKS LIKE **_I_** DON'T HAVE A CHOICE IN THE MATTER!" Lucious said, motioning to the block of ice around him.

"I said calm down, not cool."

"YOU SAID COOL!"

"I SAID CALM!"

"SHUT UP, JACK-JACK'S KILLING ME!" Dash shouted as Jack-Jack went lead while sitting on his brother's stomach.

"HEY!" Violet shouted over the pandemonium. Unheard. "HEY!" Nothing. She sighed. At that point, a truly evil thought crossed her mind. No. No no no no… but it _would _work. No! She had to get them to shut up! No!

Again, the teenager sighed. Sometimes a girl's got to do, what a girl's got to do… _I am so dead_.

"Mom."

"BLAH BLAH ARG BLAH BLECK!"

"Oh, Moo-o-om."

"GARBLE ERG ANGRY GOING GONE BLAH!"

"Okay, don't say I didn't warn you…" she said, turning around and grabbing the keys from her mother's purse and moved towards the exit. Well…

"Hey Dash!"

WHOOSH!

Violet walked outside to find her brother leaning against the car. "Thought you'd never ask."

_VROOOOOOOOOOOM, SCREEEEEEEEECH! VROOOOOOM-_

_"I thought you were supposed to be learning how to drive, not drag race!"_

_"Shut up and put on your seat belt!"_

_VROOOOOOOOOOOOM, ERRRRRR, SCREECH!_

_"Here."_

Ten minutes after the kids had left, the 'adults' were still fighting (although what they were fighting over, no one knows anymore). What they needed was someone to actually take charge. Someone who could handle any situation. Someone BIGGER than a superhero. Someone like…

BAM! (That would be the door slamming open)

"Dahlings, what on _Earth_ are you dooing!"

"EDNA!"

Correct! None other than Edna Mode was standing in Dean's front-doorframe with Violet and a spooked-looking Dash behind her.

"Kids- I- what!"

"Helen, dahling, do tell me zat you do not _live _here," E said with a level of distaste as she waddled her way into the room, kids in tow. Seriously, Dash had not taken meeting this woman well. The poor kid looked like he'd been struck by lightning.

"This would be _my_ home, E," Dean said loudly with his arms crossed over his chest.

"DEAN, DAHLING! It haz been agez! How has your _marv_elous business been going?"

"Great, E."

"What- how did- I-" Bob was confused.

"Yes, well, it seemz you lot 'ave found a way to find ze Undertaker, or whatever his name is?"

"W-well, yeah, I mean, we're working on it-"

"Lucious! I haven't seen you in yearz! 'Ow is 'Oney? Good? Good. 'Ere, take her some tea. You know, your sut could uze some changez, Dahling. Yes, I've already sent ze package, ze bill will arrive by T'ursday."

"I-"

"Now, as I understand you 'ave been fighting over icicles?"

"Well-"

"Not exactly-"

"We, uh, were discussing-"

"For supar 'eroes, you are not setting good examples."

"Now listen E-"

However, E was waddling her way back into Dean's so-called 'warehouse.'

"Now zen, 'ow about we all actually get some work done! Someone 'and me a screwdrivar or something!"

Dean didn't miss a beat. "Would a propane torch do the job?" he asked as he joined the line of people following E into the 'warehouse,' that being Vi, Dash, and Jack-Jack.

"Yes, zat would do vary nicely, Dahling. Do you 'ave any tea, by chance?"

SLAM!

Thus were all the over-thirty-year-olds left to attempt to figure out what the heck just happened.

**Wow. What a waste of chapter space. But it's nice having the pop-tarts back, you gotta admit!**

**Now if you'll excuse me (ahem) (singin') MY POWER OVER YOU GROWS STRONGER STILL! AND THOUGH YOU TURN FROM ME, TO GLANCE BEHIND! THE PHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANTOM OF THE OPERA IS THEERRRRRE INSIDE YOUR MIND!**

**Review…?**


	32. What happens when rats eat tacos

-1**Man, does it feel GOOD to have my crazy again! I've been looking everywhere for it, I really have. It must have come back when I lost my sweater. BE DANGEROUS! Interesting chapter last time, eh? (dancing to the craziest song ever) WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! YIPPEE, COOKIES!**

It was now Saturday. Bob, Lucious, and Helen had fallen asleep to the sound of chaos in Dean's warehouse hours before. How much you wanna bet that ain't gonna last?

"Where's de fire, Jack-Jack?"

"(inhale) bpbpth (inhale) bpbpth…"

"He's asleep again, someone bring me coffee!"

"Just a second, Dash!"

"Yow!"

"Are you okay-dokay, Dean, Dahling?"

"I wouldn't have said 'yow' if I was."

"INCOMING!"

CLANG!…

…

"Zat was far from _grace_ful, Violet."

"Owie…"

"Now, whare iz dat chainsaw?"

RrrrRRRRRR-RC-RK-RK-RK-RK!

"Watch it!"

"Dash, stop running me over!"

"I will when she learns to aim!"

"Oh, for de love ov Pete!" BAM BAM BAM!

…

"Are we done?"

"I think we are…"

"Brilliant! I shall get ze others! Zey 'ave probably been up all night waiting for us!"

"They had better. And technically, it'd be 'up all day,' in this case."

"Watevar."

WHAM! (That would be the door opening)

"WE'RE DONE!"

As you might've imagined, the slumbering adults were slumbering no more.

"WAAAAH!"

"WHO'S THERE!"

"NO PANCAKES!"

"'No pancakes?' Dad, what do you dream about?"

It should probably be mentioned that Helen had attached herself to the ceiling when she screamed, which is why she came back down to the floor now. "Wha… What happened?"

"We finished it, Mom!" Dash exclaimed as loudly as he could without waking Jack-Jack.

"Completed!" Edna said joyously.

"Finito. Now excuse me while I collapse," said a very sleepy teenager.

"You mean it's done? You reprogrammed the Rat Assassin and everything?" Bob asked.

"More or less," Dean answered. "Where'd you ever learn to handle a propane torch like that, E?"

"Wat do you zink I did to make money in _college_, Dahling?"

E in college? Now that's a scary thought.

"Can we see it?" Lucious asked (he'd finished thawing at this point).

"Why of course, Dahling!" E said, waddling/leading the three back into the workshop. "Well? Wat you think?"

"…"

"Uh, E? Well it's… it's uh…"

"Yellow."

"Yeah. Very bright."

"And pink."

"Wasn't this thing just plain steel?"

"Yes, well, I can't 'ave you going around after zomezing like dat, now can I? Bleck!"

"So can we go can we go can we go can we go now!" Dash asked excitedly, jumping up and down (very, very quickly).

"What! I just lay down!" a female teen's voice screamed from the other room, thus waking her younger brother.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

"Please shut up, Jack-Jack…"

Lucious shrugged to the other two adults (well, not including E). "I guess there's no point in waiting."

"But before you do, zere is somezing you MUST do!" E commanded, pointing her cigarette at Bob.

"What's that?"

"Take me 'OME, of course! 'Onestly, Helen, wat do you do with dis man?"

---

"WhOOAa!" Boom. "This-" Boom. "-is not-" Boom. "-a smooth-" Boom. "-ride!"

If you guessed that the Incredibles were in some sort of vehicle, following the slow, huge, lumbering Robot Rat, you'd be wrong. No, they were RIDING the robot rat! Well, most of them anyways. And Frozone.

"Why does-" Boom. "-Vi-"

"Shad-" Boom. "-ow," Elastigirl corrected. Boom.

"Why does she-" Boom. "-get to go in-" Boom. "-the car with Dad?" Boom.

"Good question! Why is that, Helen?" Frozone asked. Boom.

"Elasti-" Boom. "-girl. Because- " Boom. "-she needs driving lessons." Boom.

Speaking of which…

VrrRRR, SCREECH! Vrrrr, SCREEEECH!

"Easy, Vi! Easy!"

"I am being easy!" Screeeeeeeeech! "I'm trying not to hit the stupid thing!"

"Just be calm!"

"I'm-" screech! "-being more calm than you are right now!"

"No need to lose your temper!"

"I'm not!"

_You remind me of your mother_, Bob thought.

_I am so screwed. I should of told them about Tony_, Vi thought.

Now, while it was nighttime, and while they weren't following the Rat as it destroyed buildings or something, that did not mean it wasn't _Saturday night_, following the rat thing down _Main street_ for all the world to see.

"We seem to be-" Boom. "-gathering a crowd."

Boom. "Bat bo BOOM!" the Flare (do you even remember which one that is?) squealed. Boom. (Hint: Baby)

"Hey, I know that guy!" Frozone said. Boom. "He gave me a-" Boom. "-parking ticket last week!"

Rapid Fire looked down at some controls on the Rat he was sitting on. "Does this thing come with a-" Boom. "-fast-forward button?"

Elastigirl took out a walkie-talkie. "Mr. Incredible?"

From inside the car, Mr. Incredible picked up his own walkie-talkie. "Yeah?"

"Call Dean up, ask him if there's a way to make this thing go any faster. We're getting a bit more attention than we anticipated."

"Will do," Bob said as he picked up a cell phone.

"You're not supposed to talk on the phone while driving," Shadow said.

"True, but _you're_ driving," he said while dialing the number.

"You're supposed to keep me from crashing!"

"You're fine, Vi. Hey Dean? We were wondering if the rat could speed up somehow."

"But I haven't slept in like two days! What if I- AAAAAAA!"

She almost went driving into a café when, one, the rat's tail almost hit the car, and two, she thought that guy jogging was Tony. Was it Tony? Maybe she'd better-

"The road!" Bob yelled.

"Crap!" SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH! They were definitely inches away from rear-ending the Rat that time.

"Call ya back, Dean."

"Adios," Dean said from the other line. "Wave, you're on TV!"

"Shadow, Vi, Sweetie, I need you to breath."

"Eeeeeeeehhhhhh."

"And out."

"Hhuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhh."

"Elastigirl? He said do you remember the big blue button he told you not to press?"

Elastigirl looked at the big blue button between the rat's ears. "Yeah."

"Press it."

(click)

The Rat froze, and Shadow slammed on the brakes for the millionth time.

"I thought we were aiming for speed, not stop," Rapid Fire said loudly as he hit the sit of the machine with his hand.

"Maybe you have to hit it more than once?" Frozone suggested.

"Incredible, what's going on?"

_Never a good sign if Helen's calling me 'Incredible.'_ "Just give it a minute."

"We don't have a minute," Elastigirl said, looking around anxiously as people started to surround the car and contraption, wondering what the heck the supers were up to now. Sirens were heard in the distance, getting closer.

Ka-chunk!

"Eh?"

Brup, brrrrrr, GRRRRRRNNNNRNRNR, tch-tch-tch-tch, FRRRrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-

"Uh oh."

"Vi, hit the gas."

FOOM!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"IT'S LIKE RIDING A ROCKET!"

VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The Rat was presently going about 284 mph, thanks to what we like to call 'firepower' in the tail. The car was going pretty fast, too. That is, until they went off-road.

"W-W-W-W-WH-WH-H-HA-HA-HA-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-AT-AT-AT-T-T-T-T D-D-D-DO-DO-O-O-O I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I D-D-D-D-DO-DO-DO-O-O-O-O N-N-NO-NO-NOW!" Shadow screamed at her father as the car went through a rather hilly forested area, following the Rat.

"JUST FOLLOW THE-" **BAM!** "…rat." The rat, having stopped abruptly, had just been rear-ended by the careening car. Mr. Incredible would have to have Dean take a look at it later.

Shadow and Mr. Incredible got out of the car and walked to either side of the Rat, where the others were still sitting looking a bit worse-for-ware.

"Hey, you guys okay?"

"Yeah Dad!" Rapid Fire said very loudly. "Great! Ha ha ha!"

"Not great," Shadow said for her brother, shaking her head.

"Never been better! Ha ha! What a rush!"

"Son?"

Rapid Fire jumped off the rat and landed in a heap at his father's feet, a look of pure, deranged confusion on his face.

"How 'bout you Mom? Frozone? Flare?" Shadow asked the remaining rat-passengers.

"I never want to do that again," Frozone said as he attempted to get off without falling over his own feet.

Elastigirl half-oozed, half-fell to the ground by her daughter with Jack-Jack, who was acting pretty oozy himself.

"Where are we?" Rapid Fire asked as he slowly came back to himself.

The rat hissed at something ahead. The group of supers walked cautiously through the trees until they hit a stream. Set in the side of a hill was a large cave-like opening with vertical, iron bars from the top to the bottom of the opening, into which the stream ran. It was part of the city's sewer system from the looks of it.

Mr. Incredible made quick work of the bars, bending them apart until anyone of the supers could fit through. Each of the supers felt a sense of foreboding as they entered the Underminer's lair.

**Gasp! AAAAAAAAAAAA, WE'RE SO CLOSE TO THE END NOW! Isn't this exciting! I'm gonna have so much fun these next few chapters! Who KNOWS what'll happen?…**

**Well, I do, but- oh forget it.**

**Review…?**


	33. Dial 1 800 Crocodile Hunter

-1**Yello, folksies! What is up-idy? I need more pop-tarts! And chocolate. And cookies while we're at it. Whatever, you get my point! I HAVE A SPLITTING HEADACHE AND AM GOING INSANE! WOOHOO! Is the school year over yet? Because then I can skip the headache and just go with insanity.**

"It reeks in here."

"As Jar-Jar Binks once said, p. u-sa!"

"That movie sucked, Twerp."

"Oh, and 'Moulin Rouge' was so much better! The pod-racing alone made that movie awesome."

"I thought Moulin Rouge was a PG-13 movie, Dash," his mother scolded.

"Uhhh…"

"Nice one Twerp."

"Shut up."

Conversation ceased there as the supers splashed their way through the tunnel, their only light coming when Jack-Jack sneezed and either used laser vision or went fireball. Occasionally Mr. Incredible would take a head-count to make sure they hadn't lost anyone in their times of darkness. It felt like they'd been running forever.

"Can we stop a minute?" Frozone asked. Everyone but Jack-Jack and Dash were huffing and puffing.

"Yeah, okay."

"Dad, this is taking forever, and I can't remember what fresh air smelled like."

"Hey, we're only resting for a bit, not having a complaint session."

"How do we even know we're going the right way?"

"We just do."

"He has a point, Mom."

"Not you too, Vi!"

"Shadow," she corrected her mother. Elastigirl tried to remain patient.

"It can't be that much farther. Just trust me, okay?"

_Trust_… This was thought by a number of the persons present. Probably the most obvious one was Violet. After all, the reason the Underminer knew who they were was undoubtedly because Tony had betrayed her trust. But, hadn't she betrayed her parents' trust? What would they think when they found out? And she'd betrayed a trust in herself…

Vi wasn't alone. Bob felt the sting of that word as well. His family had trusted him. They'd had faith in him that he would be able to find a job and provide for them, and he'd failed. He had once again put them in danger by neglecting to tell them the whole truth. If his family couldn't trust him, what could he possibly offer them?

Helen was the one who had said it, but hearing it suddenly made her doubt whether she herself was trustworthy. Can someone trust a person who doesn't trust anyone else? She didn't trust the politicians to straighten out the super restriction laws, she didn't trust her husband with making money (much less doing anything else), she couldn't trust her daughter at this age to make choices she could be proud of… What did she trust? She trusted the floor to be there when she woke up in the morning, but that doesn't really count.

Furthermore, Dash trusted his family almost wholeheartedly, because if he couldn't trust his friends, who had been less than pleasant as of late, or himself, who seemed to have an affinity for getting himself injured, who else was there to trust?

And of course, Jack-Jack and Lucious were broken-hearted from the total betrayal of their trust in the author to give them an actual part in this sorry fan fiction. Dean and E were too busy drinking piña coladas and getting caught in the rain to care.

**(A/N The above was my pathetic attempt at what is called "theme." Memorize that word. Theme. Theeeeeeeme.)**

Suddenly, overhead lights began to blaze on, illuminating not a cave, but white concrete around the surprised supers. They were closer than they thought.

"Look," Frozone motioned ahead. Something, it was hard to tell what, was swimming just under the water towards them. As it passed under lights, they would automatically turn off, while lights on the path ahead of it that weren't on before would flicker on as it got closer.

The situation screamed 'horror flick.'

The group of supers adjusted their footing anxiously in the water. Their eyes were still adjusting to the bright light around them when they noticed the thing in the water ahead stop about twenty feet ahead. Just then, more lights behind the group flashed on; another one was coming from the other side.

"We're in trouble, aren't we?" Rapid Fire asked.

"Oh yeah. Big trouble," Frozone answered as he tried to watch both… things from either side.

Elastigirl took Jack-Jack from Rapid Fire. Which was good timing, considering what happened next.

Two gigantic robots which looked very much like crocodiles rose up out of the water, snarling viciously down at the group of supers.

"Uh oh."

The first Robot Croc launched down towards Shadow, who shrieked as she both turned invisible and put up a forcefield just in time to keep from being crunched in the creature's giant teeth.

"Hey, I'm alive!"

Then the Croc got it into his head to try eating the whole orb. Shadow gasped as it threw her, in her forcefield, into the air with its jaws and made to catch her in his mouth as she descended again, screaming of course.

"That's my daughter!" Mr. Incredible shouted as he jumped and landed on top of the Croc's nose, forcing it to shut its mouth before it could have Shadow for dinner.

At the same time, Frozone had iced the second Croc as it opened its jaws.

"All right, Frozone!" Rapid Fire cried.

"Don't celebrate just yet," Elastigirl warned, motioning to the Croc, whose eyes began to glow under the red glass and the ice broke from pressure around its powerful jaws.

Thinking quickly, Helen wrapped herself around the thing's mouth as it shut its mouth, while handing Jack-Jack off to Rapid Fire, who handed him off to Frozone (what is this kid, a football?).

"Good thinking, Helen! Crocs are bad at opening their mouths!"

Rapid Fire didn't feel like celebrating just yet. "Don't just stand there, freeze the rest of it!"

"Huh?"

"Don't you ever watch Animal Planet! It's called a 'death roll!' Now move!"

Too late. The croc thing began to spin.

Meanwhile, Mr. Incredible was having major issues trying to wrestle the first Croc down. In an attempt to hold its jaws closed, he had seized it with his arms around the mouth. It was presently beating him senseless, banging him and its own head against the ceiling and walls. Shadow was trying to help, but really wasn't doing a great job.

"HEY! Hey you! See the stick! Fetch!"

"AAAAAAAAAA-OW!-AAA!"

"Oops, Sorry Dad! Someone help me out over here!"

However, it seemed Rapid Fire and Frozone were busy trying to contain the other croc before it killed Elastigirl while juggling Jack-Jack. Easier said than done (and it wasn't that easy to say). In attempts to stop the Robo-Croc from death-rolling, Elastigirl had wound one leg and arm tightly around its muzzle, then with the extra arm and leg, had grabbed onto the walls of the chamber. The end result wasn't unlike a horse's reins attached to a hackamore **(Dictionary moment: hackamore- 1. a horse's bridle, except with a strap over the nose instead of a bit. 2. What a lumberjack does when he really feels like taking his ax to that tree).**

That didn't last long. It took very little time for Robo-Croc to get out of the super's hold and decide to go chase after Rapid Fire. While Frozone tried to get Elastigirl back on her feet, Rapid Fire was running random circles around the metal dork-head.

Now, personally, I thought his idea of dizzying it up was fabulous, but methinks we could've thought it through a bit better, because as soon as the croc figured out Rapid Fire's pattern, he shot lasers out of his eyes just under the pre-teen wonder's feet. Rapid Fire fell face first into the shallow-watered gleaming-white-sewer floor, making his nose smart in pain. Quick as ever, he rolled back up (holding his bloody nose) and darted in the opposite direction of the robo-croc, which was crashing after him (thus sending Frozone and Elastigirl leaping out of the way), angry and ready to prove it. No wonder the kid was running.

There was only one tiny little problem. Going away from Croc numero uno meant going towards Croc numero dos, which was presently arm wrestling with Mr. Incredible while Shadow tried to silently (and invisibly) crawl around on top of the thing and dismantle it. Hm, do we see a problem in this cramped but pretty sewer system? Why yes, I think we do.

"Outta the way!" Rapid Fire screamed as he ran at them, the less than happy dork-head hot on his tail. Mr. Incredible, his daughter, and croc 2 looked up as Rapid Fire yelled, and each and every one of their faces dropped.

Frozone, who was watching this, suddenly got a good idea. "Everybody, jump!"

Without a moment's hesitation, everyone, including Mrs. Incredible and Frozone, jumped as high and as far as they could, away from the two Robo-Crocs just as they rammed into each other, causing a tremendous, earsplitting crash of twisting metal and fizzing wire. And just before anyone came back down into the sewage water, Frozone aimed at it and froze it.

By the time the Incredibles realized what had happened, all the water in the passageway was frozen with one croc forever stuck under the ice, the one that had nearly killed Elastigirl partially in and out. And thankfully, Frozone's command had worked and none of the humans were stuck in the ice.

"Good thinking, Zone!" Mr. Incredible said as they all ran around the metal monsters, Frozone handing off (I did it again) the Flare to his father.

"C'mon, let's hurry!" Elastigirl said as they all were finally around the crocodile robots. However, they weren't getting around that monster of a monster that easily.

The group of supers was about twenty feet away from the iced-over robots when they heard a great big cracking of ice. Needless to say, everybody turned around, even though they all would have liked to not.

As I'm sure you guessed, the Robo-Croc that had only partially been frozen broke through its containing ice and snarled down at the humans as it wildly began to pull itself out. But just as it freed itself, something else came crashing into it. Something metal. Something big. Something yellow and pink, compliments of Edna Mode.

"Assassin Robot Rat?"

That's right! Just as the Robo-Croc was about to tear the supers apart, the former foe of the Incredibles came barreling into the dork-head, snapping its head off of the rest of the body with its powerful rodent jaws.

"It… came to save us?"

"Boo! Thank you!"

"Boo?" Dash looked up at his sister. "What's 'Boo?'"

"That's… what I decided to call her."

"You can't name it. Once you name it, you start getting attached to it! **(A/N I is having fun!)** Besides, it's pink and yellow! If anything, he should be called 'Product of Miniature Mime on Cocaine.'"

"That's a pretty lousy name. And it's a she."

"Kids."

"He."

"She."

"Stop please," Helen said through a grin-and-bear-it smile. Without another word, the group of supers started down the concrete corridor, the Disco Rat lumbering after them. Not that that lasted long, because as soon as they reached the end of Frozone's ice's reach, they were at a three way fork in the… sewer.

"Well this is fun," Shadow said sarcastically.

"We shouldn't split up," Mrs. Incredible was saying to Mr. Incredible.

"I know."

"But how else are we going to follow all three?" Frozone said to the other two adults. "For all we know, they could each lead to three more passages, then three more, and three more. We can't follow them all looking for this punk!"

"_I_ could," Rapid Fire said in an un-amused way.

"No one asked you, Small-Fry," Shadow said down to him as the adults continued to argue, leaning on his head with her elbow.

"Get off!"

"Gimme a good reason."

As the pandemonium traditional of the Incredible way of life continued, the Disco Rat was looking at the white concrete stones that made the walls. When he found one with a crack that went straight across the center of it, he looked up three blocks and lined his eyes up with two little holes in this block, and shot his own laser eye beams at the little holes (thus catching the attention of the humans present). Instead of blasting the block into smithereens, the two lasers hitting the divots pushed the block back into the wall, until once it was pushed back as far as it could go at which point a circular, metal tile crashed from the ceiling to the supers' feet and a circular, glass elevator slowly came down from the opening in the ceiling.

"Whoa," Rapid Fire said, looking up at the tunnel above their heads.

"What are the chances we would've found that without the pink mouse?" Frozone asked.

"Slim to none," Shadow replied as she patted the metal rodent. "Good job, Boo."

"Very good job," Mr. Incredible agreed. "Now it's time to do ours. Everybody in," he said, motioning for everyone to step into the elevator. But just before he followed the group in, the father took Jack-Jack over to Disco Rat. Quietly, he said to the machine, "You can understand me, can't you?"

Silence.

"Wait here, with him. If anything goes wrong, get him out." _At least I can protect the one person in my family who can't refuse_. "Can you do that?"

The rat's left paw suddenly transformed into a cradle, complete with a mouse mobile and a metallic lullaby song.

"What will they think of next?" Mr. Incredible said as he got into the elevator, hit the up button, and watched the white, watery room disappear as they entered a tube of rusted metal.

It would be the place he died.

Just kidding!

**Bwa ha ha! We are here! The ultimate climax! The big finale! What are the chances that leftover pumpkin pie had something to do with it? (I must sing now) IF YOU LIKE PINA COLAAADAS, … GETTING CAUGHT IN THE RAIN…**

**P.S. I LOVE YOU, MY REVIEWERS! Y'ALL ROCK!**


	34. When things get hectic

-1**I want more pie. And we're all out. I humbly request that this 'holiday season,' you find it in your heart to donate unused pies to a local charity, preferably the KPK Funky Fanfics charity. Or Pop-tarts. They're good too. MRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! What am I gonna do this time! Oh, I'm so excited! Just two or three more chapters now! And, Action!**

The group of supers stood inside the glass elevator as it slowly rose through a long, metal plated tunnel. Everyone of them was glad this was almost over, seeing as they'd hardly slept in the last, what, forty-eight hours? In fact, Dash and Violet hadn't slept since Thursday night, and it was now probably the wee hours of Sunday morning. Remind me to never be away from a bed that long.

But anyways, this elevator ride seemed peculiarly long, and the muzak was not helping it go by any faster.

"Do we have some sort of game plan?" Rapid Fire asked, just so that they wouldn't have to stand there doing nothing, being forced to listen to 'Happy Dan and the Cheery Choristers' sing 'How to build a sand castle.'

"No," his father answered. Well, so much for conversation.

"So how do we know if we're gonna live?" Shadow asked.

"We don't," Frozone answered bluntly.

How reassuring.

Finally, the cylinder elevator reached its destination, and the group walked into the room before the elevator went back down just far enough so that its roof formed the floor over the tubular shaft down to the white sewer. Looking around, the supers saw that the room was large and circular and that the low roof was some kind of dome. The elevator shaft was in the dead center of the completely metal-plated room, which grew dark where the floor met the walls due to large statues dressed as knights around the room. Ahead of the group was a single door.

"Welcome!" a booming voice from an intercom echoed through the room. Adrenaline rushed into the supers' systems. The Underminer.

"Please come in. I've been expecting you."

Mr. Incredible took the lead and opened the door, which led to a large boiler room with lots of empty space. And there he was, the Underminer, seated in a rather odd chair at the back of the room.

"About time you showed up," the man with large, large front teeth said smugly. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd gotten my calling card. Ah, and looky here," he continued, looking at Rapid Fire, "the tyke survived. What a shame."

"Call me 'tyke,' why I'll-" Rapid Fire started.

"Rapid Fire," Elastigirl warned, taking hold of his shoulder.

"Why not call him by his name, _Helen_? You'll save yourself some trouble."

"Shut up, ya giant guinea pig!" Rapid Fire shouted as his sister and mother held him back.

"Son, that isn't very heroic," Mr. Incredible suggested quietly to his son. Then he stepped forward, glaring at the Underminer. "What are you plotting? What do you want with my family?"

The Underminer started laughing. Like, really laughing. Like rolling on the floor. Not at all flattering (much less understandable).

"Is he having a seizure?" Shadow asked.

"I am not!" the Underminer growled, suddenly composing himself. If it wasn't such an odd place and odd situation, each and everyone of those supers would have laughed.

"Who ever said I wanted _your_ family, Incredible?" the Underminer asked, pointing (well, sort of. He has claws for hands, after all) at the red-clad man. He moved his gaze instead to Frozone. "Your family was the link I needed for my _true _adversary!"

"What?" Rapid Fire is befuggled.

"What?" Frozone is befuggled, too. I imagine everyone in the room but Underminer is befuggled. **(A/N I love that word)**

"My life was ruined because of you! Look at me! Look at what I've been diminished to!" Considering he was about as tall as Dash, the guy was pretty diminished.

Just then, a sound of metal clanking around in the elevator room stole the supers' attention. Through the door marched the twenty knights, not statues but robots, while four Robot Rodents emerged from out of the boiler room with two Robo-Crocs appearing at the Underminer's sides. This was going to be, in all definitions of the term, difficult.

"Not that the blame isn't partially yours as well, Mr. And Mrs. Parr. If you had been there to help your friend, maybe your children wouldn't be here today. But oh no… you were too proud to just form a team…"

"Who are you?" Frozone finally shouted.

"Ha ha! But don't you remember?" he yelled as his forces began to surround the circle of supers. "But then, you were _young _then."

How rude.

"Had to have been twenty, twenty-five years ago. Remember the carnival? There was a fire? A car had run off the road, hit the Ferris Wheel and fell into the river."

_Hold it_, Shadow was thinking. _Car in the river_?

"You saved the whole town's kids from being crushed under flaming metal," the Underminer said coldly. Mr. Incredible noticed that all of the Robot Rats were near he and Frozone as the robot arsenal stepped in closer.

"But did you bother to save the three scared teenagers drowning in the river?"

Shadow flashbacked to what Tony had told her after she'd met his parents. His uncle had drowned in a river because …

Frozone seemed to be having trouble remembering a car. Sure, he could remember the carnival. It had been the event that shot off his career. But a car? There were some casualties in the fire, but it wasn't like one man could save everyone. And what was this guy talking about, Bob and Helen? Lucious hadn't even known Helen at the time, and had only just met Bob…

The knights were getting uncomfortably close to Rapid Fire and Elastigirl, who couldn't help wondering why they were all waiting when this was a perfect chance to stop the monologue and kill the rat. **(A/N BECAUSE I SAY SO! BWA HA HA!)**

"Ricky Rydinger and Lucy Estep had already died by the time the river had swept the car to the sewer, but I, though legs trapped in the car, had managed to get above for air. And the rest is history, Frozone."

"Zone, you're my buddy," Mr. Incredible said. "But if this loon's critters hurt my kids, you'll pay for it."

"I hear ya."

Shadow looked at the knights in front of her, searching for weak spots with renewed enthusiasm. This is why Tony had done it. It all made such perfect sense.

"Now!" the Underminer cried. "Attack, my minions! And let my foes know their betrayer, helped by one of their own in these very corridors!"

The knights unsheathed swords and ran with the Rats at the supers, into battle. Each of the supers met their enemy, except for Violet, who was suddenly distracted by what the Underminer had last said.

"What?"

"Come out, my Favored Minion! Come and watch your 'allies' fall!" the Underminer beckoned to the curtain that hung behind his chair as he reached for a drawstring.

_No! No no no no no-no-no! Bad bad bad!_

Too late. The Underminer pulled, and the Incredibles looked up in shock at who'd been standing behind the curtain…

**And the battle begins! **

**Review…?**


	35. Two words can change everything

-1The person behind the curtain… Kari McCean.


	36. Go get a soda, this chapter's a long one

**I AM THE QUEEN OF ALL TWISTS! Okay, maybe not, but still. I laugh! Did I fool you? Did I? Did I? Did I? (giggles maniacally)**

That's right! The betrayer was NOT Tony Rydinger! Not Rick Dicker (although why you'd think that, I haven't a clue)! No, not even Kermit the Frog! It was Kari McCean or whatever her last name is, the Babysitter! Watch as the pop-tarts rule!

"Are you sure those things are safe?" she asked the Underminer, pointing to the knights and rats which the group of supers were trying to ward off while they stood in a perfected shock (none of a higher standard than that of Violet).

"You need to be quiet, minion."

"Now that's not very nice!"

"What the heck is going on?" Elastigirl exclaimed as she stole one of the knights swords and (here's the wind-up)- POW! used it to hit a homerun with the knight's head. Crash! It dead. That's 1 out of 20.

Rapid Fire yelled to Shadow, "Isn't that the -whoop- babysitter we hired for Jack-Jack?" as he ducked under a knight's legs, ran up a wall, and flipped back onto that very knight's shoulders, proceeding to bang on his head like it was New Year's. (2/20)

The moment Rapid Fire said 'Jack-Jack,' though, Kari jumped five feet in the air, coming back down on top of the Underminer looking like a cat that had just had its tail stepped on. Not that the Underminer was exactly thrilled with getting squashed by a fifteen year old girl.

"Gitoff me!"

"I'm stuck!"

"Then un-stuck yourself!" the Underminer shouted, pulling her off and tossing her three feet away.

"Ow! My bum!"

Shadow, who'd just turned invisible and taken a loose pipe nearby to two knights' "happy places," then to their heads (4/20), ran up to Kari.

"KARI?" Violet screamed (as was her specialty) at her friend. "HOW DID THIS- WHAT IS- WHY ARE YOU- WHAT THE (bleep)!"

"Violet Mary Parr!" Mrs. Incredible shouted over the fighting.

Kari, cowering from Violet's outbursts, stood up. "Well what does it look like?"

"HOW'D YOU KNOW! YOU GOT YOUR MEMORY- HOW DID-?"

"I remembered."

"But how!"

"Well, _I _don't know!" Kari said, as though it should be obvious. "I just saw you talking on Sarah's cell phone, and I just remembered that you hired me to watch your baby brother."

"BUT THAT'S IMPOSS-…ible…" Oooooohhhhh, no it wasn't. The same thing had happened to Tony, hadn't it?

Meanwhile, Frozone was laying on as thick a layer as he could of ice onto one of the rats' legs. The giant mechanical beast snarled at him. However, Frozone suddenly got hit in the side of the head by another rat's tail, sending him flying and his ice beam every which way. Whether he realized it or not, he accidentally froze a pipe to one of the boilers, which went BOOM! about ten seconds later.

You might be wondering why the Underminer or his Robo-Crocs hadn't interrupted Violet and Kari's conversation. That would be because at the moment, he and his protectors weren't in the general vicinity of the supers. No, he was in a separate part of the boiler room, getting ready for something…

"But- but- why?" Violet asked hysterically of her friend.

"THE BABY WAS EXPLODING! HAVE YOU EVER SEEN AN EXPLODING BABY! IT'S NOT VERY PRETTY!"

"I KNOW! I LIVE WITH ONE!"

"…You have a good point."

At that moment, a knight clattered his way towards the girls (Kari, of course, screamed), his sword raised to slice the super in half. In response, Shadow put a forcefield around him and turned her attention back to Kari, who watched amused as the knight tried to figure out what the heck was going on.

"But why would you tell a criminal about us? Why didn't you come ask me or something! Look at this mess!" Vi said, motioning with her arm around the boiler room. At the moment, Rapid Fire was running about frantically with four knights on his tail, Elastigirl was making good use of her new sword by dueling with three knights of her own, Frozone was multi-tasking by freezing knights to various walls with one hand and trying to keep one of the Robot Rats at bay with the other, and Mr. Incredible was trying to keep from being torn to shreds by the other three large rodents. Very messy. I believe the count is about 9/20 knights now.

"Because my uncle is paying the Underminer anyways! Oh hey! He exploded! Fireworks!" Kari exclaimed happily, watching the knight that had been in Vi's forcefield explode after a number of bad attempts to escape on his part. Boom. (10/20)

"AND WHO THE HECK IS YOUR UNCLE?" Frozone screamed as he skied past, two rodents and a knight chased after him. He promptly made an ice beam, which he shoved into the first rat's throat, then the second rat's, and finished it by freezing the beam to their heads. Then skied as quickly as possible from the knight. However, the knight himself slipped on the ice Zone was skiing on and skidded across the floor until his head got stuck in a boiler. (11/20) (2/4)

"Oh he's very important, Mr. Ice!" Kari said happily **(A/N what a ditz)**. "He's a Congressman!"

Whoa, hold on a second. Pause. Rewind. Play.

"Oh he's very important, Mr. Ice!" Kari said happily **(A/N what a ditz)**. "He's a Congressman!"

Shadow turned her attention from putting a forcefield around Rapid Fire (thus saving him from becoming knight sushi), and looked back at Kari wide-eyed. "Wh-…Wh-wh-whayu? What? C-K-C-Congressman? Wh-What kind of Congressman?"

"There's more than one type? So THAT explains why I'm failing Government and Politics class!"

"KARI WHO THE HELL IS YOUR UNCLE!"

"McCormick."

This is the part where your face (and that of the supers) drop in utter "you have **got **be kidding me."

A new determination swept over Mr. Incredible. He was NOT going to waste another moment fighting these pieces of junk when he could be finding the little creep Underminer. And thus, he started pulling boilers out of their places in the room and throwing them at knights. In five seconds, 20/20. Oh, and Elastigirl was elasti-cutting the wires of the rats apart very, very quickly with her little sword (thank goodness she wasn't around during the feudal era is all I have to say).

Just then, a very loud beeping sound echoed through the room.

"Ho boy."

"Thank you, son."

"That… would be my cue to leave!" Kari said quickly, dashing away from the supers. But that's kind of hard when a forcefield pops up around you.

"D'OW!" she yelped, grabbing her nose which she'd just run into the semi-transparent wall.

"Kari," Shadow said threateningly pleasantly **(A/N is that even a term?)**, approaching her. "What's going on?"

"I dunno!" she blurted out as she was turned to face the surrounding, impatient supers.

"Kari, this is like baseball. Three strikes and you're out."

Gulp.

"What's going on?"

"This would be the part where the Underminer shows up in his super-rodent-electronic suit thing with lots and lots of robot alligators."

"Why?" Frozone asked, still utterly befuggled and getting frustrated.

"So that he can kill you and your family and take over the city and die a martyr with his whole story on the front page when the army kills him, thus ruining your career as a super hero. Or was it so that he could get discount banana splits? He's a very odd fellow."

"This would qualify as a disaster," Rapid Fire said to his parents.

"Yes it would! Everyone split up and shout if you find him!" Mr. Incredible ordered as he went sprinting off. Elastigirl set out too, and Rapid Fire went to circling the room. Frozone moved out next, and Shadow was about to start searching, dragging Kari along behind her, when she heard something from the elevator chamber. Looking over her shoulder, Shadow saw one of the last things she needed at the moment: Jack-Jack, floating up from the elevator shaft.

"AAAAAAAAAA!" Kari screamed at the sight of him.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me!" Shadow yelled at the beeping, running to grab her brother.

"Violet?" Frozone yelled after her (as he hadn't quite left earshot yet), then following the two teenage girls back into the dome-roofed room.

Shadow ran into the room, leapt and grabbed her brother, landing on her back on top of the elevator roof just as Kari and Frozone came into the room.

"Violet, what are you doing!"

"KEEP IT AWAY!"

"Jack-Jack, don't you ever-" but Violet was suddenly very distracted by what she saw in the center of the roof above her which she hadn't seen before.

"Violet, we've gotta go! What if that… guy gets too much of a head start?"

"Zone?" Shadow said, cradling Jack-Jack in one arm as she stood up, never taking her eyes off the roof. "Look," she said, pointing. Kari and Frozone looked up.

There in the center of the roof was a circular tile of sorts, just the size of the elevator, labeled "The Mole."

"I have an idea," Shadow said.

"A BAD idea!" Kari said.

"I like the idea. C'mon," Frozone said, leading Kari next to himself and Shadow on top of the elevator. He aimed and shot an ice-beam at the metal circle, thus sending it flying and a-clanging into the room above. By that point, Shadow had found the controls on the elevator that took them up, and hit the button. Within seconds, the loud beeping sound from the boiler room disappeared, and they were in the Underminer's favorite invention.

"Wow, it's dark in here."

"Yeah, where the lights?"

Bing! The lights were on.

"Oh that's cool."

"Abba boo!"

"You better keep that thing away from me."

"Kari!"

"Enough you two. What do we do now?"

"Uh… find the controls, I guess," Shadow suggested. However, gazing around this part of the Mole quickly produced no such controls. Kari did find something of interest on one of the walls, though.

"'In loving memory, to my comrades,'" she recited from an engraving at the top of the wall. Her gaze came down to two cubbyholes in the iron-plated wall, one with a statue of a young man, one with the statue of a young woman. "Hey, check this out guys!" Kari yelled to the others. Shadow and Frozone walked over, mesmerized by the extremely realistic statues. The Underminer had even sculpted their clothes.

"Weird…"

"Icky moo!" Jack-Jack squealed.

"Hey, guys? I'm not so sure these are-"

Foom. The statues opened their eyes. Their entirely black eyes.

Everyone screamed and jumped back.

"-statues…" Frozone completed, completely startled. The adrenaline was pumping, let me tell you.

And then they started moving towards the four very scarred people, ever so slowly.

"It's Ricky and Lucy!" Frozone yelled in disgusted shock, watching the machines approach.

"Ricardo?" Only you, Kari.

"No, dead! Run!" Violet screamed and the four of them hightailed it to the other side of the room, where they thankfully found a door and bolted through it, shutting and locking it from the other side.

"That was close," Lucious breathed.

"Yeah," Violet agreed as they all turned around to look in the room they were in now. Violet half-gasped, half-shrieked while Kari's jaw full-blown dropped.

The ginormous room was filled wall to wall with mice, rats, and other creepy-crawly rodents. Shadow suddenly remembered falling into a hole on this thing the first time she fought the Underminer, and landing in this room.

Suddenly, there was a clawing and moaning sound from the other side of the door.

Kari turned to face the author and asked, "Are you sure this fiction doesn't belong in the horror genre?"

Meanwhile, Violet (still holding onto Jack-Jack) had leapt onto Frozone's back, watching with bug eyes as the rodents scrambled in every direction. "They're everywhere!" she squeaked, truly petrified.

"C-C'mon! J-just put a forcefield around yourself or something!" Frozone pleaded. Then sneezed. I guess it doesn't help that he's allergic, huh?

"Oh, hehe, right." Shadow did just that, then started to roll uncontrollably over the creatures towards the other side of the room. _Ew ew ew ew ew!_

Unfortunately, these rodents must have been hyper smart, because once they noticed she was injuring their fellows, many of the critters began to 'attack' the bubble.

"Maybe that wasn't such a great idea, Mr. Ice," Kari suggested.

"Ya think?" Shadow shrieked as she rolled around the room on a wave of rodents.

"I'll take care of it!" Frozone declared, stretching his arms out. And thus were all of the Underminer's pets turned into icicles, including the ones climbing around on Violet's bubble. Which means Frozone accidentally froze Shadow's bubble, with her in it, as well.

"Well, this is just peachy! How'm I s'posed to get outta this?"

"Any chance you can un-freeze stuff, Mr. Ice?"

"Uh… how much air you got in there, Violet?"

"I'd say I'll be alive another five minutes if I hold my breath for two. Wanna make this snappy?"

"We could let in the monsters about to break down the door."

"The goal is to save her and have the three of us still alive as well."

"Well excuse me for making a suggestion."

"One minute for me to live and counting, guys! Let's go!"

But it was Jack-Jack who would save the day. You see, back at Dean's house earlier in the day, there hadn't been too much baby food, so Bob had just mashed up leftover pizza for the baby. Since then, he had yet to be burped. And thus was his dragon-breath power discovered.

FOOOOOM! The ice-bubble melted, and Shadow was saved. That's one heckuva burp.

"Ew!"

"Hey, you saved my life, Jack-Jack!"

"And ruined mine, this was my favorite shirt, Vi!"

"Do you two ever stop?"

"No."

Frozone sighed and marched forward to the next door, grumbling about how Bob owed him money for baby-sitting.

Meanwhile, Rapid Fire, Mr. Incredible, and Elastigirl had most definitely found the Underminer. Not that they were happy about it, seeing as they were currently surrounded on all sides by Robo-Crocs, leaving them stuck to watch the Underminer about to jump out a window with his flying-super-suit on, a whole army of inventions already piling outdoors.

"Let's hope Frozone kissed his wife good-bye, eh, Incredible?" the Underminer yelled before giving in to a raucous laugh and jumping outside.

"What d'we do?" Rapid Fire yelled.

"It would be a nice time for ideas, Bob," Mrs. Incredible agreed.

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking," he said, looking from his wife to the crocs to Dash. Then POP!

"I got it! Helen, boomerang!"

"What? This isn't the time to be-!"

"Just- make- boomerang!" Mr. Incredible shouted desperately, grabbing his wife and throwing her molding body around at the Robo-Crocs just as they attacked, like a boomerang. Pow, pow, bam, bang, foom, fam, crash, BANG!… Well, so much for them, huh?

"Dash, run and find the others!"

"On my way!" Dash yelled over his shoulder as he sprinted back towards the boiler room (they'd found the Underminer several stories up from there).

Helen looked up at her husband slightly amused by what had just happened. "I swear, Bob, for a moment I'd thought you-"

"AaaaaAAAAAA**AAAAAAAAAAA!**" Dash was running back towards his parents as very quickly as he could, screaming like a banshee. At the last moment, Bob grabbed his son just as he was about to jump out the Underminer's window.

"Whoa, whoa, hold your horses! What's got you in such a hurry (even for you)?"

"Big! Tank! Must! Run!" Dash replied, unable to form a complete sentence in his state of panic.

As if on cue, the floor beneath the three Incredibles began to shake violently and they were all about ready to jump out the window when the "Mole" came crashing up through the next-door-room's floor and the walls.

"What in Dicken's name!" Helen exclaimed, completely at a loss for comprehensible vocabulary.

The gigantic drill stopped and out of the top popped Frozone, Shadow, Jack-Jack, and Kari.

"You got that right, Mom," Dash agreed, looking at what was before him.

"WHO NEEDS A HUMMER WHEN YOU GOT **THIS **BABY, HUH!" Kari yelled loudly before jumping back down into the control room.

"Mom, Dad! Where's the Underminer?"

"You just missed him," Mrs. Incredible shouted up to Shadow. "We have to hurry; he's just headed out after Honey and the entire city after that!"

"WHAT!" Lucious exclaimed. "Well I'll teach that low-life, sonuva gun who's gonna be where by the time this is over, I tell you that!" he muttered as he jumped back into the machine. "WHICH BUTTON IS FORWARD, BOB!"

"Well how should I know."

"Hey!" Rapid Fire exclaimed. "I gotta plan!"

"Let's hope it doesn't involve Twinkies," Violet said.

"I'm serious! I think this could work!"

"Then please share so I can save my wife!" Lucious said, leaping back out in his frustrated panic.

---time skip--- **(A/N this is one long chapter, huh?)**

"This has got to be one of the most ridiculous plans I have ever carried out in my career," Lucious said aloud.

He watched Kari at the driver's seat of the Mole (which had obviously been designed for someone shorter than either them), Jack-Jack sleeping in his arms. The insanely giddy teenager was slowly lowering the titanic machine to ground level, where they planned to drive out of whatever building they were in and chase after the Underminer in the city, destroying as many of his toys as they could along the way.

Just a few moments before, Shadow had jumped out the same window the Underminer had with Elastigirl, who had shaped herself into a hang-glider (an interesting sight). They were going to find Honey and hopefully get her somewhere safe.

Meanwhile, Rapid Fire and Mr. Incredible were running back to the Disco Rat. Well, Mr. Incredible was running there, and Dash was running between the two.

Whiz! "C'mon Dad! Two more floors to go!" Whiz!

"You (huff puff) get back-"

Whiz! "87..." Whiz!

"-here or I'll (huff puff)-"

Whiz! "88. Come ON! Let's move, Dad!" Whiz!

"That boy…"

"89. Almost there! Give yourself a pat on the back!"

"Son."

"Just a sec." Whiz!

…

Whiz! "90! Yes?"

"Please stop."

They had finally made it to the boiler room and were sprinting (with Bob wheezing the whole way) to the elevator when they heard a gargantuan crash above them.

**CRASH!**

"What the-?"

"Watch it!" Frozone yelled at Kari from inside the Mole as they crashed through the front door (correction: front wall) of what turned out to be an old abandoned water treatment plant of some sort a few miles north of downtown in a wooded area (as I'm sure you recall).

"WHEEEEEEEEE!"

Kari was having what some call "too much fun." Too much driving a 700 ton automobile like it was a street car. Meanwhile, Frozone was trying to deal with a crying baby and living through the joys of a fourteen-year-old girl who didn't even have her driver's permit yet.

"How many times have you driven?" he asked as they bulldozed another tree.

"This is my first time!"

"Oh dear."

"Chitti-chitti-bang-bang, chitti-chitti-bang-bang, we love you!"

"No we don't! Here, take this," Frozone shouted, shoving the insane creature out of the chair and away from the steering while handing her Jack-Jack, who immediately recognized her. She did him as well, and, needless to say, she screamed as Jack-Jack went to his favorite hobby of terrorizing her.

"Lift! I need lift!" Violet screamed to her airborne mother as she herself scrambled with her legs to keep them from tumbling into the trees on the rather breezeless night.

"Violet, calm down! If you keep kicking like that, we're going to- WHOA!"

Updraft. They were now much higher.

"Well… that was enough lift."

"Certainly was."

Violet suddenly spotted something that made her stomach go topsy-turvy. And no, it was not that she looked down. "Mom."

"Hm? What is it, sweetie?"

"Duck."

"What?"

"Down! Down!" Shadow screamed as she directed her link to her altitude lower, just in time to keep from being hit by a small, private plane.

"He nearly hit us!" Helen shouted.

"I noticed," Violet said, her heart thundering in her chest.

"Airplanes should have horns! Imagine if he had hit us!"

Violet burst out laughing at her mother's suggestion, thus causing them to fall close enough to the trees for Violet to run on their tops for a while before another breeze carried them up and towards the city lights.

"I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-MN-N-N-N-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-OT-T-T-T-T-T-S-S-S-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-S-S-U-U-U-U-UR-UR-UR-R-R-R-E-A-A-A-A-B-B-B-B-O-O-OU-U-U-U-U-U-T-T-T-TH-TH-TH-TH-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-S-S-S-S-S!" Bob yelled to his son from atop the Disco Rat. Oh yes, they'd pressed the big blue button. At the moment, Dash was running in little orbits around the robot as it sped through the city's sewers.

"WOHOO! OH! HIT THE BRAKES!" Rapid Fire commanded, he himself stopping on a dime. Mr. Incredible and the Robot Rat on the other hand, went sailing past.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH-BAM!…roll-roll-roll-roll (Dash watched as a large "hubcap" that had been on the rat's thigh rolled past him).

"Ouch."

"Dad, c'mere! I think this could be the one!" Rapid Fire said, pointing up to a manhole cover above him. Mr. Incredible limped towards him, holding his back, and (with the aid of one of the ladder rungs) shot himself up the tunnel and punched the manhole cover so that it went flying into the sky, giving Incredible time to look about. It seems he startled the customers to an open air restaurant nearby.

"I don't think this is the one, D- I mean, Rapid Fire," he called down to his son.

"Well then hurry up!"

Bob jumped back down the tube just as the manhole cover clanged back into place, its first and only 35,000 feet journey officially over.

If you were wondering what them two were up to, Lucious had recalled that there was a manhole cover directly in front of his apartment building and they were searching for it. You see, it was going to be difficult for Shadow and Elastigirl to find Honey's residence from the air. That is, unless they got a signal like, say, a rocket shot from the back of a pink and yellow robotic rat. From there, the boys would take to destroying the Underminer's army of critters.

Speaking of Honey, she was pacing around the kitchen of Lucious's and her apartment as she tried to prepare breakfast (at six in the morning on a Sunday. _Someone_'s been up all night). She was getting worried, if not a bit impatient with her husband. He hadn't called since yesterday from some kid's garage to report Edna (whom she'd never met) was taking over the world or something. She turned on the TV in frustration, knowing all too well that there would be nothing on. But after about three minutes of searching through infomercials, all of the local channels seemed to go to special reports. Flicking between them, this is what she heard:

"A large army of robots has just entered-"

"-the Mole is nowhere to be seen on his latest excursion-"

"-appears to be led by the 'Underminer'-"

"-police force being overwhelmed by the-"

"-in, the federal troops may-"

"-as you can see- Dan, look out!" The station's camera feed went dead, the last thing the audience saw being a large, red-eyed Robot Rat attacking the camera man.

"One can only ask, 'where are the supers now?'"

Honey walked horrified to the window overlooking the street. "You got that right, lady."

"Oh my goodness! The Mole!" the reporter screamed as the camera zoomed in on the tank and Honey jumped over the sofa to get to the TV again.

Kari yelped as she clung to Jack-Jack (who was lifting her into the air as he levitated) and the Mole crashed through the streets, destroying dozens of robots at a time as it crushed them. "You call that driving!" she screamed.

"Yes, as a matter of fact I do!"

"Gah!" Kari cried as Jack-Jack suddenly went gooey on her (and her clothes). "Gross!"

The jello stuff giggled.

"Yiee!"

"Show yourself, you double-crossing, yellow-bellied, mouse-sized skunk!" Frozone shouted at the video screens, searching for the Underminer. Then, he spotted him. The Underminer, according to the camera, was about two blocks down the street they'd just crossed, leading his army from his helicopter-like flying chair. That's when Lucious realized that they weren't that far from his apartment.

"Ready, D- I mean, Rapid Fire?"

"Ready!"

"Fire!" Mr. Incredible shouted as he hit the button that launched rockets of the Robot Rat's back (who was now completely hubcap-less, if you get my drift). Rapid Fire, in the meantime, was scaring off nearby robots with a sparkler. Giant, bright fireworks went off, one right after another, above the manhole, until Bob was out of rockets. **(A/N happy fourth of july!)** Turning to face the numerous machines before his son, the Disco rat, and himself, Bob rolled his neck. "Showtime."

"There!" Shadow shouted up to Elastigirl. "Go right!"

Whoosh!

"Not that far right!"

"Well I can't see what I'm doing!"

"Stop yelling at me!"

"I'm not yelling!"

"Fine! Turn left again when we go around this building."

"Fine!" Elastigirl yelled over the wind as she and Shadow flew between skyscrapers and apartment buildings. As they turned left, a breeze caught them and carried them up as well, above most of the buildings, and Shadow was suddenly aware of a few problems.

Mr. Incredible whirled a Robo-Croc around by its tail, letting it go to sail through the crowd of robots destroying the city. Another Rat lunged for him, and in response he threw a car at the thing's head. Rapid Fire was leading other robots (mostly the Rats) to Disco Rat, who quickly dispersed them. After the two of them performed the stunt for a fifth time, Rapid Fire looked down the street.

"Dad! Dad! Look!"

Mr. Incredible looked to where his son was pointing as soon as he got his fist out of the Robo-Croc's mouth (taking numerous microchips with him). Only a block away was the Underminer, flying their way.

"We gotta stop him!" he shouted.

"How?" Rapid Fire asked as he jumped away from another Rat (Disco Rat was going to get many treats after this mess).

Incredible hesitated for a moment, searching for an answer, before turning to face the Disco Rat.

Suddenly, a loud crashing noise echoed through the street, and Dash and Bob looked up to see the Mole chugging towards them from about two blocks behind the Underminer. Looking up to see that also caused their lines of vision to notice a red and black colored figure flying high with a similarly colored hang-glider.

"Mom! The Underminer's almost there!" Shadow shouted. Unfortunately, Helen wasn't the only one who heard her. The Underminer turned around in his chair to face them.

"You two!" the criminal bellowed, enraged.

"Violet, get ready for a very hard ride," Helen murmured.

"You lot will never live to hear my triumphant cry!" the Underminer screamed, taking a small metal ball out of his jacket and throwing it towards them.

"Which way?" Elastigirl yelled.

"Uh- Left!"

The hang-glider swerved to the left just as the metal ball exploded in midair in what had been right in front of Vi's face not three seconds before. The Underminer bellowed in fury, throwing another ball at them as he sped towards the apartment building, bent on proving his destiny.

"Up!" Shadow cried, and Elastigirl obeyed. They got out of the way of that one quickly enough so that they could catch up to the Underminer for a moment before he tossed another one.

"Okay, Dash?" Mr. Incredible checked that his son understood his directions.

"I got it!" he said as he climbed on top of one of Bob's arms, holding one of his hands with both of his.

As the Disco Rat warded off one opponent after another, Mr. Incredible started to spin around, Rapid Fire hanging off one arm from the momentum. "Now!" he cried, letting go of his son's hands so that he went flying into the army of robots. Bob watched anxiously, hoping that the stunt would work.

As Rapid Fire fell towards the car-sized creatures, feet first, he started his legs up. He hit the top of them already at top speed so that as he went, he was able to run along the tops of them all the way to the Mole. As soon as he jumped inside the tank, he was already shouting, "Zone! Zone!"

"Speedo?"

Meanwhile, Mr. Incredible was about to jump back down into the sewer beneath the manhole cover when he noticed, horrified, that his wife and daughter were racing with the Underminer (who was definitely cheating) towards the apartment building where Honey was (who was also quite noticeably standing right by the window, watching). He would have continued watching except another Croc attacked him, biting at his arm. Just then, Rapid Fire whizzed back to his father's side at such a speed it knocked the Robo-Croc over.

The Underminer chucked another blow-up ball at the girls; Shadow didn't even need to speak anymore to get Elastigirl to dodge in the best direction (in this case, down). In fact, due to some clever dodging on their part, they were almost even with the Underminer now. He threw two now, and the pair had to do a corkscrew to keep from being hit. However, the move gave the Underminer time to throw a third one at them, and by the time they noticed it coming and reacted by twisting to the left and up (closer to the apartment building), the ball exploded. They both yelped when bits of burning metal and flame hit Helen in what was normally her arms, Violet in the arm and side.

The Underminer took his chance. He spun around in his chair, getting his bearings as he searched for the right building and right room. However, the girls were already recovering and speeding for the window. When he noticed they were about to beat him to the wife of his nemesis, the Underminer growled ferociously, throwing metal balls towards the window as he zoomed for it as well.

Everything felt like it happened in slow motion and fast motion at the same time. Helen, not ten feet away from the window and closing in fast with the Underminer another ten feet behind, ordered Violet to jump. Vi let go of the hang-glider bar, flying towards the window with both arms out while Helen pulled up and grabbed hold of a flagpole on the building, completely worn out as she was. Violet crashed through the window, hearing a woman's scream, Honey's scream, as she essentially tackled the woman, also hearing several small objects flying through the air towards her from behind. The two crashed to the floor.

Fft.

BOOM, Boom, BOOM!

Shadow opened her eyes, and Honey and she looked up towards the window. There was the Underminer, pounding on a semi-transparent, purplish wall that Violet had instinctively put up in place of the window. The Bomb Balls had exploded on that.

"He could use a shower," was the first thing out of Honey's mouth.

"You can't take this away from me! I'll kill you for this! Expose you to the world! Your lives are over, you hear me! Do you he-" POW!

Helen, who'd been just above the fellow, had stretched down and given him a good, well-deserved whack in the jaw, sending him soaring back over the street.

"Pull!" Dash shouted as the dirt-bag was almost over the manhole cover. Foosh! Bob threw the cover up towards the Underminer and it beaned him in the head, also hitting the helicopter chair and breaking it. The Underminer quickly descended towards the earth and, right on cue, Frozone did the most incredible feat he had ever done in his life. He froze an entire block's worth of robotic monsters and the unconscious Underminer himself, locking him up quite well for the cops.

It was over.

Violet released her forcefield and looked out at the street below. "I wonder how we're gonna clean that up."

**God, what a long chapter. I'm so happy! You have no idea how much fun that was! Cookies and Pop-tarts go well together. Hm, I wonder if they make chocolate chip Pop-tarts. But anyways, yes, this fan fiction is almost over. It's taken more than half a year, but it's finally rounding down. But do you wanna know the good news? I'm planning a sequel! BWA HAHAHAHAHA!**

**Review…? (And I swear, if you say this thing left something to be desired, I will not hesitate to do you harm)**


	37. The End

-1**Bum bum bum BAAAAAA! LAST CHAPTER! Who cares if it's any good, I'm just glad I finished the thing! Woohoo! (does a dance) So anyways, Tribulations is ending, and yes, this chapter is going to be particularly short in light of last chapter's particular length. It took me at least a week to write that baby. But anyways, TOMORROW TOMORROW, I LOVE YA TOMORROOOOW, YOU'RE ONLYYYYYY A DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY AAAAAAAAWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! WHEE!**

The next few days were quite busy for the Parrs, and the nation in fact. When news got out that the Underminer had been paid by McCormick, the entire country was in an uproar and the Congressman was now under investigation. A rumor going around claimed he was planning resignation.

Thankfully, the news that McCormick's niece had been used in the plot was not exposed, and Kari was personally escorted by the Incredibles' NSA agent to the capital, where the mother-load of all NSA's memory-erasing machines resided.

The Underminer himself, whose real name was discovered to be Dirk Ogden, was given a rabies shot and put into jail to wait for trial, seeing as he couldn't afford bail.

The Incredibles themselves spent a better part of the week helping to clean up the mess they'd made during the last battle. Someone's gotta clean it up. What were they gonna do with it all? Let's just say Dean was going to have lots of scrap metal.

They also spent a large amount of time searching through the Underminer's base, destroying any proof of their true identities. They also paid for the proper burials of Ricky and Lucy, seeing as they were getting paid very well for this super villain. And yes, Violet and Dash thoroughly enjoyed missing school from Monday to Wednesday.

Now it was Thursday, almost a week since the climatic ending to this story began. The month of November, actually the entire fall, had certainly been exciting for the family, and they were enjoying a well deserved break.

Helen was in the kitchen cooking like mad in order to have dinner done in time while Dash played on his Gameboy **(A/N I wonder if they have Gamegirls?)**. Bob was enjoying watching a football game on the TV as Violet entered the room, putting on a sweater.

"I'll be back in a little bit!" she shouted as she walked out the front door.

"Now wait a minute, Vi, I-" Bob started, getting out of his chair. The phone rang.

"Bob! Can you get that?" Helen yelled from the kitchen.

"Coming!" he said, walking to the kitchen phone and picking up the receiver. "Hello?"

"Good evening, I hope I'm not interrupting anything. Is this the Parr's residence?"

"It is."

"May I speak to Robert Parr, please?"

"Speaking."

"Oh, Mr. Parr. This is Mr. Moscowitz. You saw me a few months ago during a job interview."

"Mr. Moscowitz!" Bob repeated, sitting down at the table nearby. "How can I help you?"

"Well, Mr. Parr, as it turned out the man the company hired for the job you were interviewed for has recently been caught in, put politely, naughty business. Let's just say company money is a bit too tempting for some, hm?"

"Yes, sir."

"Anyways, the situation was cleared up before anything terrible happened, the man was fired, but we hadn't been able to find a replacement. That's when I remembered you from a few months back. Now, I don't want to presume anything, but have you found a job since then?"

Technically yes, but I got fired for beating up a guy. "No, sir, I'm afraid not."

"Well, how about you and I meet Monday for lunch to discuss matters a bit. I'll call you say Saturday to arrange it; I wouldn't want to interrupt a meal right now."

"Of course, sir."

"My pleasure."

Bob hung up the phone, grinning. "Helen?"

"Hm?" she asked as she took one thing out of the stove, put something else in, and was chopping foodstuffs up on the counter across the room (go elasticity).

"You're going to love me in a second."

Meanwhile, Violet was on a date of sorts. She'd met Tony down the street at a St. Louis Bread Co. **(A/N WHICH IS THE ACTUAL NAME OF THE PLACE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH! MCDONALD'S JUST BOUGHT IT AND STUPIDLY RENAMED IT TO THE DORKIEST NAME ("Panera") EVER!) **for a soda. Ooooooooooh yes, apology time.

"I can't believe you just let me think it was you."

"Well I was a bit confused, you know."

"Can you believe I actually thought you'd sold me out to the Underminer?"

"Eh."

The teens sipped on their soda a moment, watching people go by. "Why didn't you tell me?" Violet asked.

"That I was innocent?"

"Well yeah."

"Would you have believed me?"

Well no. "I might have."

"Uh huh."

"At least a little, give me some credit here!"

"All right all right," Tony said, smiling. "So," he said, "What's going to happen to Kari?"

"Oh, she's in D.C. right now living right. Apparently the memory thingmerbob at the NSA department here was on the fritz because of magnetic rays from the Omnidroid last spring or something and that's why you two ended up remembering stuff. So they're gonna fix her up nice and happy there, then bring a new thing back here."

"Then I'll be forgetting stuff again." It was meant as a question, but he said it like a statement.

Violet looked at him a moment. "Nah."

"Why not?"

"Technically," she said through a grin, "we're the only ones who know about this little incident. Sure, the family probably 'knows,' I mean you _were _ zapped after Kari after all, but…"

"We don't have to tell them." Tony smiled. "I guess we should be getting back home."

"Yeah, my mom's probably stretched pretty thin in the kitchen all by herself."

Tony looked at her a moment before chuckling.

"What?"

"Nothing. You just have a wonderful choice of words."

"Oh be quiet."

They walked outside and went their separate ways.

"Happy Thanksgiving, Vi!" Tony called over his shoulder.

"You too, Tony!"

**The End…**

**(for now)**


End file.
